WPLP last week acquired the note to 88 units of the 120-unit Maui project from a group of Japanese banks led by Mitsui Trust & Banking Co.

The price was not disclosed but is expected to be lower than the $30 million mortgage amount. The sale of the note is being financed by GE Capital Hawaii Inc., Dowling said.

With the deal, prices for the one-bedroom and two-bedroom condos will drop to around $300,000 from their original price of up to $600,000 when the project was completed in 1993, Dowling said today.

WPLP will serve as the lender to the project and Mike McCormack's Palms at Wailea Venture II will remain as the developer, said Dowling. McCormack Real Estate Service will sell the units.

Gary Faber, vice president of finance for McCormack Properties Ltd., said the Japanese lenders sold the note after sales of the condos slowed due to the slump in high-end condo sales. Since 1993, the developer has sold just 32 condos.

Faber said that since last month half of the remaining 88 units have gone into escrow. The developers had cut prices in anticipation of the mortgage sale.

A former Castle & Cooke executive, Dowling is also the key investor in a group that's attempting to purchase the $60 million mortgage to the Aloha Tower Marketplace.

His partners in the Aloha Tower Venture - the Goodfellow Bros. of Maui and Burt, Ron and James Kobayashi - also have an interest in WPLP.

Dowling recently built elementary schools on Maui for the state Department of Education and Bishop Estate.

The Palms at Wailea, which was designed by local architect Norman Lacayo, is the second phase of the condo project developed by the McCormack group. The 150-unit first phase was sold to buyers during the early 1980s, said Chad Griffith, attorney for Mitsui.