Honolulu Star-Bulletin Business /2005/02/17/

[ FAST FACTS HAWAII ]

WORK IN PROGRESS

COURTESY NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE
The Pride of Hawaii cruise ship, now under construction in Germany, is scheduled to be delivered in spring 2006 and will sail under the NCL American brand.

Local firm partners in Texas purchase

Honolulu-based commercial real estate investment company Gretzinger Corp. and West Commercial Real Estate Services of Austin, Texas, have bought a Texas shopping center for just under $2 million.

The two bought the 25,000-square-foot Court Plaza Shopping Center in Seguin, Texas, east of San Antonio. City Bank and Central Pacific Bank provided financing for the deal.

Gretzinger, formed in 1991, said it now owns seven industrial and retail buildings in Texas, including five in the San Antonio area.

NCL to hold fund-raising cruise

Cruise line NCL America will hold an overnight fund-raising cruise in July to benefit Child & Family Service, Kapiolani Children's Miracle Network and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.

The cruise will be among the inaugural festivities for the arrival of NCL's second U.S.-flagged ship to serve Hawaii, the Pride of America.

NCL will donate the use of the ship, food and beverage services and amenities. Two previous charity cruises by NCL raised more than $500,000, the company said.

Those wanting to book a cruise should contact one of the charities.

Beep! Beep! and Cowabunga!

Cowabunga! Computers has been selected by Oceanic Time Warner as a Road Runner-approved service repair company for the second consecutive year.

The Road Runner Approval service program provides specialized and discounted on-site repair, maintenance, upgrade and consulting services to more than 130,000 broadband subscribers across the state. Although Road Runner makes up more than 90 percent of Oceanic's high-speed data base, AOL and Earthlink broadband users who sign up through Oceanic also qualify for the program.

Cowabunga also has entered a cooperative marketing agreement with Oceanic Time Warner that enables the Honolulu-based computer company to place Road Runner Approval decals alongside the black cow patches that adorn Cowabunga's Volkswagen Beetle white service vehicles.

Other Road Runner-approved companies include Mac Made Easy and CompUSA, as well as Professional Concepts on the Big Island.