Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, September 6, 1996
Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, September 6, 1996
An advertisement in the Wall Street Journal called for sealed bids to be submitted by Oct. 11. No price was mentioned and officials of the Honolulu brokerage handling the sale, Koll Asia Pacific, could not be reached for comment.
However, hotel consultant Ron Gilligan, of R.F. Gilligan Realty, said he was told there is a minimum price of $7 million.
"There will be keen interest in the property, given its relatively low price," he said.
The hotel, on land leased from the state at the mouth of the Wailua River, is owned by Alta Hawaiian Limited Partnership, which bought it in 1994 for $4.5 million in a bankruptcy auction of the assets of Maruko Hawaii Inc. Maruko had paid $27 million for it in 1989.
Work started this week and is scheduled for completion in November in time for the store's 50th anniversary.
The work will expand the men's, women's and junior's apparel departments, as well as cosmetics and jewelry, and improve the lighting, the company said. The SuperSaver hair salon will close.
Margaret Morris, store manager, said shoppers had asked for more variety in the apparel lines.
Kailua customers also asked for other changes. Liberty House is replacing its value-oriented home store on the second floor with a more traditional selection of home merchandise, she said.
The Penthouse and Shoe Rack, and the United Airlines ticket counter, will remain on the second floor.
The store, at 573 Kailua Road, completed a second-floor renovation in 1992.
AOL, the nation's largest provider of online services, had announced Wednesday that it had blocked five sites that serve as clearinghouses for unsolicited, commercial mailings.
But pending a trial tentatively scheduled for Nov. 12, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner ordered AOL yesterday to lift the block on Cyber Promotions' mailings. Weiner is presiding over a suit Cyber Promotions Inc. filed in March accusing AOL of trying to drive it out of business.
Cyber Promotions controls three of the five sites blocked by AOL. The others - one that distributes software to create bulk e-mail lists and one that had sent out ads for Internet video porn - were not affected by Weiner's order.