West Hamilton Holdings Ltd today announced that its operating profit rose 12.6 percent to more than $633,000 in 2011.In a letter to shareholders, president and chairman David White said that increased demand for parking spaces had helped to boost rental income to $2.12 million, up from $2.01 million in 2010, an increase of 5.6 percent.The Bermuda Stock Exchange-listed company, which was incorporated five years ago, owns property at 69 and 71 Pitts Bay Road, where it intends to develop Belvedere Place, consisting of four new buildings with 105,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of residential space, 8,000 square feet of retail space and underground parking for approximately 181 cars.Right now, much of the area, formerly the home of the Bermuda Bakery, is being used as a parking lot.Mr White noted that the average rental rate decreased to around $42 per square foot last year compared with a high of $49 per square foot in previous years. This reduction has been offset by increasing demand for parking spaces, which is expected to continue especially in 2013 when the new Waterloo building is occupied.“This was a year of continued pressure on rental rates as a result of increasing vacancies from existing properties and additional space being added to the market,” Mr White wrote.“Our focus has been on retention strategies to maintain our current tenants by keeping operating costs down and responding to the needs of our tenants. The company’s balance sheet was strengthened substantially as a result of the rights issue in July 2011.”The letter stated that current assets, which include cash and other assets that could readily be converted into cash, increased significantly to $10.25 million compared with $2.89 million in 2010. The increase is directly related to proceeds from the rights offering.The rights offering raised $9.38 million dollars, gross. The net proceeds after deducting the cost of underwriting amounted to approximately $9 million, some of which was used to repay a short-term loan of $2 million with Butterfield Bank.This year, a further $5 million was used to repay part of the construction loan of $15 million provided by Butterfield in 2009. Mr White said the remaining $2 million will be used during 2012 to fund remediation works identified by Woodbourne Associates to prolong the life of the Belvedere Building and to enhance its attractiveness.The company said it had its major tenants has renewed their tenancies for 2012. The vacancy rate for the Belvedere building in 2011 was 5.6 percent and approximately 15 percent for the parking facility.