Potlatch sells timberlands near McCall, Idaho

Potlatch Corp. has sold 172,000 acres of timberland near the resort town of McCall, Idaho, citing a sluggish market for second-home sales.

The land was sold to Southern Pine Plantations of Macon, Georgia, for $114 million, Potlatch reported Tuesday in its first-quarter earnings results.

Spokane-based Potlatch purchased the acreage in 2007, intending to sell parcels for rural recreational use, said Mike Covey, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer. But the bankruptcy of Tamarack Resort near McCall and the national recession affected demand for second homes, and that market hasn’t picked up again, he said in a news release.

Potlatch expects to take a book loss of $36 million on the sale, which will be reflected in second-quarter results.

Covey said the money from the sale will be used for a $60 million stock buyback program and to retire company debt.

Potlatch reported net income of $200,000 during the first quarter, or 0 cents per share, on sales of $128 million. During the first quarter of 2015, the company’s net income was $5.7 million, or 14 cents per share, on sales of $134 million.

Potlatch is a real estate investment trust with about 1.4 million acres of private forest land in Idaho, the Midwest and the South.