PHOTO COURTESY ALEXANDER & BALDWIN INC.
Alexander & Baldwin Inc. announced yesterday it sold the 135,000-square-foot Moulton Plaza in Orange County, Calif.
A&B sells Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has sold a 135,000-square-foot shopping center in Orange County, Calif., for $20.5 million, as yet another step in its move since the late 1980s to become a nationally known commercial real estate company.
California center
The Moulton Plaza shopping
complex brings in $20.5 millionBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com
The Moulton Plaza in Laguna Hills was one of A&B's first commercial real estate ventures outside Hawaii. A&B bought the center in 1989 as part of a portfolio of three mainland commercial-industrial properties acquired for about $50 million.
The individual price for Moulton Plaza was not disclosed.
The 135,000-square-foot center is 98 percent occupied, the company said.
Allen Doane, A&B president and chief executive officer, called it a "selective sale" of a mature asset, taking place at a time that "takes advantage of the continuing strength of real estate in the Southern California economy."
The property was sold to Moulton Plaza LLC and Laguna Woods Pavilion Center LLC.
He said A&B will invest the sales money in new real estate ventures.
A&B, best known in Hawaii for its ownership of Matson Navigation Co. and a big sugar business on Maui, has recently been concentrating on Hawaii for its real estate investment but also reached out to the mainland.
In the past four years, A&B acquired or invested in 15 properties worth a total of $200 million.
"We'll look for good opportunities and try to pay attention to what's going on in our back yard, in Hawaii," said Norbert Buelsing, executive vice president of the commercial real estate subsidiary, A&B Properties Inc.
"Hawaii would be preferred, obviously, because we know the area," Buelsing said. But there aren't that many properties available locally, he said.
A&B has conducted a number of significant mainland transactions this year.
In February, A&B sold for an undisclosed price a seven-building, 843,000-square-foot industrial complex in Texas that it had owned since 1990. In May, the company sold a shopping center in Colorado it bought in 1995.
Also in May, A&B bought a shopping center in Long Beach, Calif., for $20 million.
"We also acquired the Mililani Shopping Center here in Hawaii," Buelsing said, for $30.2 million, about $1 million less than the seller, Morita Co., paid for the center in 1999.
Last week, A&B agreed to pay $2.7 million for a five-acre parcel at Kunia, where it plans to build a $9 million neighborhood commercial center.
In the first nine months of this year, A&B had total property sales of $61.4 million, at an operating profit of $14.2 million, about 20 percent of its total operating profit of $70 million.
The company also had an operating profit from property leasing of $24.5 million in the latest nine months, 35 percent of total corporate operating profits for the period.
The Kunia and Orange County transactions will show up in the company's fourth-quarter report.
A&B stock closed down 41 cents at $25 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The latest sale was announced after the market closed.
