During the quarter, we took steps to fortify our balance sheet and proactively issued $1.3 billion of senior notes in an effort to further diversify our funding sources, term out our debt maturities, and lower our overall cost of debt.
The combination of these events has allowed us to accelerate 2 million square feet of development in our core MPCs, and we continue to look for additional opportunities ahead.
Within our MPC segment, new home sales, a leading indicator for future land sales, increased a staggering 35%, selling 929 new homes, 241 homes above the same period last year.
MPC earnings before tax, or EBT, increased 44% to $63 million in Q1 of 2021 compared to Q1 of 2020, largely driven by higher custom lot sales in Summerlin and an increase in the number of units closed at The Summit, our joint venture with Discovery Land Company.
On our fourth quarter earnings call, we provided MPC EBT guidance for 2021 in a range of $180 million to $200 million.
Following the results of the first quarter, we are now targeting a range of $210 million to $230 million.
Our operating assets performed well during the quarter with a 10% sequential increase in NOI across the portfolio.
One of the leading drivers of this increase was retail, which improved by 20% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
The largest factors contributing to this increase were driven by our two largest retail footprints, Ward Village and Downtown Summerlin with NOI rising 55% and 44%, respectively.
During the first quarter, collections improved to 78%, the highest retail collection rate since the onset of the pandemic.
During the quarter, we nearly broke-even as we recorded a net operating loss of $147,000 compared to a net operating loss of $236,000 last quarter.
In addition to these positive improvements, we received the annual distribution from our 5% ownership stake in the Summerlin Hospital totaling $3.8 million, which further fueled the sequential rise.
Office NOI declined 8% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 largely attributed to space reductions by select tenants in The Woodlands in Columbia.
In total, our stabilized office occupancy dropped 3% since the fourth quarter.
The NOI generated by our multi-family assets declined 12% sequentially, largely due to favorable property tax true-ups realized during the fourth quarter of 2020 that were not repeated this quarter.
Our stabilized operating asset NOI target increased to $379 million in the first quarter, an increase of $17 million compared to the first quarter of 2020.
We contracted 46 units during the quarter, marking a sequential increase of 64%.
We closed on our $368 million construction loan for the development.
The pace of presales for this project is the fastest Ward Village has ever seen, with 85% of the tower already presold.
Said differently, we have only 15% of the tower left to sell between now and the time of completion, which is expected to be in 2024.
During the first quarter, we served over 38,000 guests and had an average daily wait list of 3,000 people, while generating over $2 million in revenue.
At Pier 17, we rebranded Bar Wayo, a JV owned restaurant with David Chang, which opened as Ssam Bar last month, and we're close to opening our two new concepts by Andrew Carmellini, Mister Dips and Carne Mare.
At the Fulton Market Building, we're preparing the former 10 Corso Como space for two new concepts announced last quarter, The Lawn Club and a restaurant for acclaimed chefs, Wylie Dufresne and Josh Eden.
Finally, last week, we passed a significant hurdle in the land use approval process for 250 Water Street that Jay will describe in more detail, in addition to providing updates on our Strategic Developments segment.
As of the end of April, we have commenced construction on the 2 million square feet of development that was announced in February, and so far, secured $494 million in construction loans to finance these projects.
With 85% of the tower already presold, we could not be more pleased with the results of our local Hawaiian team.
This mixed-use product will comprise 472 apartment units and 32,000 square feet of ground floor retail.
Juniper was delivered back in the first quarter of 2020 and is already 80% leased, which has exceeded our projections.
This is only our second multi-family project in Bridgeland and like Marlow in Columbia follows on the success of Lakeside Row, which opened during the fourth quarter of 2019, and is already 94% leased only after one year in operations.
Our multi-family product, Tanager Echo and our next office building, 1700 Pavilion.
We look forward to bringing these assets online quickly as their predecessor projects, Tanager and two Summerlin office buildings are both 100% leased.
At the Seaport, as David mentioned, we received approval last week from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on our proposed design for a building on the site of the surface parking lot at 250 Water Street.
During the quarter, the Seaport reported an operating loss of $4.4 million, which was largely unchanged from the same quarter last year.
Foot traffic has declined within our retail locations and social distancing requirements limited our ability to maximize the entire space of the Pier 17 Rooftop.
We have several new concepts gearing up to launch soon at Pier 17 and the Fulton Market Building.
With 2 million square feet of new development under way, we are actively seeking out future opportunities where we can put our capital to work.
New home sales accelerated quickly during the first quarter with 929 new homes sold in our community, 35% more compared to the first quarter of 2020 and 34% higher than the fourth quarter of 2020.
Land sales, however, were down 5% in the first quarter with 54 acres sold versus 57 acres sold in the first quarter of last year.
The fact that land sales were only down 5% without closing on a single super-pad highlights the strength of the quarter for our MPC.
MPC EBT, which is a metric of profitability we look at for the segment, increased 44% compared to the same period last year.
During the quarter, The Summit closed on 19 units versus six units closed during first quarter of 2020, a substantial increase that helped drive quarterly MPC EBT to $63 million.
Summerlin had a breakout quarter with new home sales higher by 41% in the first quarter of 2021 versus the same period in 2020.
In addition, price per acre in Summerlin residential land grew 13% or $199,000 to $1.7 million per acre for the first quarter of 2021, as compared to the first quarter of 2020.
This also compares very favorably with the $762,000 per acre achieved last quarter.
New home sales grew 33% when compared to the same quarter last year, and price per acreage of residential land increased from $439,000 in the first quarter of 2020 to $459,000, a 5% increase.
In Woodlands Hills, new home sales more than doubled from 41 homes in the first quarter of 2020 to 84 homes this quarter.
Similarly, The Woodlands Hills sold 16 acres of land during the quarter, representing a 92% increase when compared to the same period last year.
Price per acre of residential land increased from $303,000 in the first quarter of 2020 to $307,000 this quarter.
We contracted 46 units during the quarter, of which 30 units were from Victoria Place.
The sales pace at this tower has been incredible with 85% of the units presold, and we are only just starting construction.
During the quarter, we closed on a $368 million construction loan for this project at LIBOR plus 500 basis points with an initial maturity date of September 2024, and two one-year extension options.
This 85% presold tower has hard deposits from buyers that can be used to fund construction.
Our other two towers under construction, 'A'ali'i and Ko'ula, are making strong progress and are 86% and 79% presold with estimated completions expected at the end of 2021 and 2022, respectively.
During the quarter, we closed on five units between Waiea and Anaha generating $35 million in sales.
It is important to note that $20 million was charged during the quarter related to additional anticipated costs to repair construction defects previously identified at Waiea.
This is comparison to the $98 million charge in the first quarter of 2020 for the estimated repair costs related to this matter.
For the first three months ended March 31, 2021, we reported a net loss of $67 million or $1.20 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $125 million or $2.88 per diluted share during the first quarter of 2020.
The year-over-year improvement was accredited to a stronger result in our MPC and Strategic Developments segments, in addition to no impairment charges during the quarter compared to a $49 million impairment charge against the outlet collection at Riverwalk during the same period last year.
This was partially offset by a loss on the early extinguishment of debt due to the repurchase of the company's $1 billion senior notes due 2025 and the repayment of the loans for 1201 Lake Robbins and The Woodlands Warehouse in February following our $1.3 billion bond offering.
Excluding our loss on the early extinguishment of debt and non-recurring items, HHC would have reported a net loss of $31 million or $0.56 per diluted share during the first quarter of 2021.
This successful issuance allowed the company to reduce its annual interest expense by $11 million with the refinancing of its 2025 notes and extended out its maturities by an additional two years.
The offering includes a $650 million eight-year issuance due 2029 at a rate of 4.125% and a $650 million 10-year issuance due 2031 at a rate of 4.375%.
This bond offering increased our unencumbered book value of assets by over $300 million, further reduced our cost of debt and extended our maturity profile.
Our nearest debt maturity is not due until October of 2021, which is our $28 million loan on the outlet collection at Riverwalk.
In April, we secured a $43 million construction loan for Starling at Bridgeland, which bears an interest at LIBOR plus 275 basis points and matures in May of 2026 with an option of a one-year extension.
We also closed on an $83 million construction loan for Marlow, which bears an interest of LIBOR plus 295 basis points and matures in April of 2025 with an option of a one-year extension.
In Summerlin, we also closed on a $59 million loan, which replaces the existing construction loan for Tanager.
This loan was closed in April and bears interest at 3.13% and matures in May of 2031.
Finally, we closed out the quarter with over $1 billion of liquidity, which includes $976 million of cash on hand and $185 million of availability under our lines of credit.
Our net equity requirement for projects under construction totaled $504 million at the end of the first quarter.
When you account for the construction loans we closed in April, this equity commitment drops further to $379 million.

Summary:
For the first three months ended March 31, 2021, we reported a net loss of $67 million or $1.20 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $125 million or $2.88 per diluted share during the first quarter of 2020.