Pope Resources: Company is rolling along

Most businesspeople have had times when everything seemed to go wrong. Far rarer are those times when everything clicks into place, but that's what Pope Resources has experienced recently.

Pope's three main business lines are selling logs from its own timberlands, managing timberlands for other people and selling surplus property for development. None of those businesses typically has a smooth, predictable path to profits: The first varies with demand for lumber, the second depends on finding and retaining management clients and the third often requires years of pre-development and permitting work before land can be sold.

Over the past two years, though, each of Pope's businesses has excelled:

• High demand from homebuilders translated into higher log prices, and Pope was able to cut more timber than usual, thanks to acquisitions.

• Pope sold off much of the timberland it was managing, earning hefty one-time fees, though cutting into management income.

• The company last year sold about 35 acres of commercial land in Gig Harbor for $16.7 million, and 200 acres of residential land in Bremerton for $12 million.

CEO David Nunes readily acknowledges that Pope isn't likely to hit that sort of trifecta again anytime soon. Indeed, first-quarter profit this year fell to $854,000, versus $5.3 million a year earlier.

However, he said, Pope is laying the groundwork for future big paydays. Its first timberland-investment fund raised $62 million, most of which was used to buy two tree farms totaling 24,000 acres; the company now is raising a second, $100 million fund.

It's also working to redevelop Port Gamble, a former company town in Kitsap County. Though the sawmill shut down in 1995 and fewer than 100 people live there now, Nunes said Port Gamble has potential as a vacation and retirement destination.