Absent a fourth quarter that involved tax reform and pension settlement write downs, the parent company of Blue Hills Bank  had a strong year driven by commercial real estate growth.

Blue Hills Bancorp reported net income of $1.3 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to net income of $4 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2016.

On the year, net income was $16.5 million, or $0.67 per diluted share, up from $8.7 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, in 2016.

Total assets at the $2.67 billion bank grew about $200 million year-over-year. Total loans ended 2017 at $2.2 billion, up $275 million from one year before. Most of that growth was in the commercial real estate sector where loan volume shot up from about $686.5 million at the end of 2016 to nearly $834 million at the end of this year. Residential loans saw solid growth as well.

Net interest income for 2017 was $17.76 million, up more than $2.5 million from one year before. The net interest margin grew 10 basis points to 2.79 percent.

Noninterest income was about $17.1 million for 2017, up about $5 million from 2016.

The allowance for loan losses as a percentage of total loans was 0.95 percent at the end of 2017 compared to 0.97 percent at the end of 2016.

Nonperforming assets were $11.5 million at the end of 2017 compared to $9 million at the end of 2016, mainly due to loans secured by one income property that were placed back on nonaccrual in the first quarter of 2017.

Nonperforming assets as a percentage of total assets were 0.43 percent at the end of 2017 compared 0.36 percent at the end of 2016.