Family sells Aina Haina Shopping Center
The son of the founder of a self-storage empire has purchased several key pieces of real estate on Oahu, including the Aina Haina Shopping Center, home of Hawaii's first McDonald's restaurant and Foodland Super Market.
The same buyer, identified only as American Commercial Equities, also purchased the Local Motion building at 1958 Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki, and is in contract to purchase land adjacent to the free-standing building.
According to its Web site, the Malibu, Calif.-based American Commercial Equities is led by B. Wayne Hughes Jr., son of Public Storage Inc. founder Bradley Wayne Hughes, who was ranked 152nd on Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the world's billionaires with a net worth of $5.3 billion.
Fred Noa, a senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis, handled the deals along with David Dolman, a vice president with CBRE's industrial division, on behalf of American Commercial Equities.
The price of the shopping center was not disclosed. Although the sale closed last Friday, PBN was unable to determine the purchase price from public records because of the extensive backlog at the state Bureau of Conveyances, which records all real estate transactions. The assessed value is about $19 million but it likely sold for closer to $30 million.
The sale includes the land beneath the Aina Haina Professional Building, which is separately owned.
Noa said the buyer plans improvements to the shopping center and intends to "enhance" the tenant mix and the "grocery experience."
The new tenant mix could include a Walgreens or Longs Drugs store. Foodland continues to anchor the center, which includes a variety of smaller tenants as well as two banks, a post office and a Chuck E. Cheese's.
Noa said the intention "really is to kind of honor the past."
"In our opinion the sellers did a good job of stewarding over this asset," he said.
The Aina Haina Shopping Center was opened by the Hind family in 1950 and was still owned by members of the family until its sale. The center was the first significant commercial outpost in the area as the suburbs of East Honolulu began taking shape after World War II.
Noa said the family hadn't put the center on the market and that they were approached with an offer.
The center's location at the corner of Kalanianaole Highway and West Hind Drive is near the site of the old Hind-Clarke Dairy, which closed in 1948, according to the shopping center Web site.
The Hind family subdivided and developed the property into a residential subdivision in the late 1940s and 1950s into what is now Aina Haina, which means Hind's lands in Hawaiian.
It is unlikely that American Commercial Equities will resell or redevelop the seven-acre shopping center.
The firm notes on the Web site that it is a long-term investor that focuses on retail locations in "high-traffic commercial districts."
"We have the resources to acquire individual properties or full portfolios in all-cash transactions, no matter the size," the Web site said. "And we are known for our ability to process and close transactions quickly."
Separately, American Commercial paid $15 million to purchase the Local Motion building in Waikiki and is in contract to buy six adjacent parcels of vacant land totaling 26,000 square feet, which was listed for $6.5 million. The Local Motion building is less than 10 years old and is the largest retail property on the west end of Waikiki, an area that is still ripe for redevelopment.
Noa said the buyer plans to develop the property with retail shops and restaurants and the "most amount of parking in Waikiki for that much retail," about 70 stalls.
Noa declined to name tenants, but said that CBRE -- which handles acquisitions, leasing and management for American Commercial Equities -- is working with several different concepts and talking to some "very, very strong tenants."
Local Motion Inc., which is leasing back the 10,000-square-foot flagship building it just sold, has plans to open up to two other stores in Waikiki, said Mark Bratton, vice president and manager of the retail division at Colliers Monroe Friedlander, who represented Local Motion in the sale.
The company also is planning to open a store in Waikoloa on the Big Island, he said.