Oahu luxury home
sales picking up

Some prominent high-end
properties sell, but at
reduced prices

By Rob Perez
Star-Bulletin

Several multimillion-dollar sales in Oahu's pricey oceanfront neighborhoods have closed recently, including the sale of a large parcel on the former Kaiser Estate.

Real estate agents say the deals reflect increased activity in Oahu's high-end market in recent months.

Two sales that closed last week involved prominent beachfront properties:

<img src="bu.gif"> A California limited partnership, Evershine VIII, purchased a 77,917-square-foot Portlock parcel on the Kaiser Estate for $5 million. The parcel was one of three that made up the Kaiser spread, once owned by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Landowner Bishop Estate has the other two parcels on the market, too.

<img src="bu.gif"> A Japanese company, Kirin Planning, bought the Kahala Avenue mansion previously owned by attorney David Schutter for $7.2 million. Schutter transferred ownership of the 17-bedroom home on a nearly 63,000-square-foot lot to Bank of Hawaii in 1995 to help settle some bad debts.

In another Kahala Avenue deal that closed last month, a 64,296-foot parcel was sold to a foreign buyer for $7 million -- less than half what a Japanese company paid in 1989. The parcel includes the largest stretch of fee-simple ocean frontage (180 feet) along Kahala Avenue.

The two sales that closed last month were handled by an international marketing team that included Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties agent Chris O'Brien.

The sales are just further signs that the high-end markets in Kahala and Portlock have strengthened over the past year, O'Brien said. "We had interest (for the two properties) from all over the world," she said.

But real estate appraiser Bob Hastings said the sales reflect more realistic pricing and the relatively cheap cost of capital.

"I don't think the market is really racing back," he said.

O'Brien said she couldn't disclose details about the two buyers. State and California records, however, show Evershine is a Cupertino-based partnership whose general partner is Everbright I, a real estate investment company. Annie M.H. Chan, a principal with Everbright, signed the documents for the Kaiser deal.

The fact that the Kaiser parcel, which was listed at $5.875 million, had a private boat dock and channel was a key attraction for the buyer, O'Brien said.

Bishop Estate had been trying to sell the entire Kaiser property since early 1997 without success.

About three months ago it started marketing the property as three parcels. The largest is about 157,000 square feet and includes the main residence. List price: $11.75 million. The third parcel is about 82,000 square feet with a guest house and swimming pool. List price: $5.875 million.

Hastings said he was surprised Bishop Estate sold the first parcel for only $5 million -- about $65 a square foot. "They've kind of set the upper limit" for the two other parcels, he said.

The Kahala parcel that closed last month had been purchased by a Japanese firm for $18 million in 1989 -- 61 percent more than what it fetched last month. Realtor Patricia Choi said the new owner, whom she wouldn't identify, will build a new home on the site.

The price the bank got for the former Schutter parcel likewise was well below what the attorney once thought it was worth.

In 1991, Schutter was asking as much as $45 million for the mansion. By late 1994, he had knocked the price to $14 million.

Bank of Hawaii put the home on the market in late 1995 for a "minimum" $8.9 million. The bank declined comment on last week's sale.