STAR-BULLETIN FILE
The 1100 Alakea Building reflects the image of nearby Alii Place. Alexander & Baldwin is negotiating to buy 1100 Alakea, sources say.
A&B looks at Alexander & Baldwin Inc. is negotiating to buy a 32-story downtown Honolulu office building, 1100 Alakea.
downtown building
The company is in talks to buy
1100 Alakea, industry sources sayBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com
Few details are available, including a likely purchase price. A&B Properties, the subsidiary that conducts the company's commercial real estate business, declined to comment. 1100 Alakea Corp., owner of the building, also declined to comment.
Real estate industry sources, however, said a deal is in the works and tenants said they had heard that A&B was going to take over their building.
In recent years, A&B has developed into a major mainland and Hawaii commercial real estate business, buying and selling properties to take advantage of market conditions.
The 1100 Alakea property would be a significant local acquisition. The building was completed in 1993 at a cost of about $40 million. The news at the time was mostly about what the Japanese owners paid for the land, $33 million in 1989 for a little more than half an acre.
The building was developed by Toa Kogyo (Hawaii) Co., a local subsidiary of a Tokyo-based business.
The building is in what is considered to be a good location, at the corner of Hotel and Alakea streets, and has six underground parking levels. It features external glass-window elevators.
The Toa Kogyo entity that owns and manages the building is 1100 Alakea Corp. The building, which has about 177,000 square feet of leasable space, is less than half occupied, according to Honolulu real estate sources.
A&B Properties owns and manages about 91,000 acres of land in Hawaii and has a portfolio of commercial income properties of more than 5 million square feet in Hawaii and the western United States.
Honolulu real estate sources say that A&B is not likely to run the building as a leased-out commercial property. The company is more likely to resell it, unit by unit, as office condominiums, sources said.
Alexander & Baldwin Inc.
