City seeks $57M
for Pearl City parcels

The city is asking more than $57 million for four vacant properties in Manana near the Pearl Highlands Center and plans to use the proceeds to pay for the settlement of a lawsuit over land near Sandy Beach.

The city recently retained three local commercial brokers -- Colliers Monroe Friedlander Inc., CB Richard Ellis and Sofos Realty Corp. -- to market more than 29 acres of commercially zoned land in the Manana district in Pearl City.

The properties are next to a planned Wal-Mart store and several blocks from the Pearl Highlands Center and a Home Depot store.

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The offering comes as several high-profile retail properties such as the Whalers Village on Maui and the Kukui Grove Shopping Center on Kauai have been sold or put on the market.

With Hawaii's real estate industry on a hot streak, the city has received strong interest from the development community, said Roger Lyons, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis.

The largest parcel, which is being marketed by Colliers Monroe Friedlander, is a 13.5-acre site across Kuala Street from the planned Wal-Mart, which is scheduled to open this fall.

A 2.2-acre property next door is being listed by Sofos Realty while two nearby 6.7-acre sites are being marketed by CB Richard Ellis.

The sales represent the final pieces to more than 15 years of litigation over land near Sandy Beach between the city, landowner Kamehameha Schools and developer Maunalua Associates.

Under a settlement reached three years ago, the city agreed to hand over proceeds from sales of the four properties along with $17.5 million from its 2002 sale of nearby land to Wal-Mart.

In exchange, the city is receiving 32 acres along the Ka Iwi coast to be used as a public park.

Maunalua filed its suit after the city downzoned the property from residential use to preservation in 1988. The city previously had issued permits to Maunalua to build a 171 luxury homes and two golf courses.

The city changed the zoning after the developer and Kamehameha Schools received strong community opposition from groups such as the Save Sandy Beach Coalition.