Amfac/JMB
to sell Puna land

Star-Bulletin staff

Amfac/JMB Hawaii plans to sell 2,700 acres of land in the Puna district of the Big Island.

The offering comes in addition to a large tract of Kauai land the company has already put on the market.

In all, Amfac has about 11,400 acres on the market and said it is planning to use the proceeds to pay off debts which are coming due in 1999.

The company retains another 35,000-plus acres in the islands, mostly on Kauai and Maui.

The land now for sale is considered surplus by the company, said president Gary Grottke.

"We consider these lands to be nonstrategic for the future of Amfac in that we have no plans to develop them," he said.

In the earlier Kauai posting, announced a month ago, Amfac said it was asking $19.5 million for an entire 6,700-acre ahupuaa, a strip of land running from the mountains to the coast.

Within the ahupuaa at Kealia, parcels which may be sold separately range from 1,100 acres to 2,500 acres and were priced at $2.5 million to $3.9 million.

Grottke said the company is negotiating with several potential buyers interested in the Kealia property.

Amfac is also offering about 2,000 acres at Kapaa. Not for sale are about 8,000 acres near the Lihue Airport which have been approved for residential and commercial development, he said.

The sale of the land shouldn't have much of an impact on the company's sugar operations; only 1,400 acres of the property is planted in sugar and could remain so even if its sold, Grottke said.

Since 1993, Amfac/JMB has sold off more than 7,000 acres in the state. Amfac/JMB is the Hawaii land-holding and agriculture arm of what used to be Hawaii's biggest company, Amfac Inc. The company was acquired by Chicago-based JMB Realty Corp. in 1988 in a transaction financed largely by the sale of notes based on the value of the Hawaii lands.

Amfac/JMB, which has some 950 employees, had revenues of $97.4 million last year but lost $34.2 million, largely because lower property values forced a write-down of the Hawaii lands on its books.

It listed its real estate holdings at $289.3 million at the end of 1996, compared to $336.1 million a year earlier.