Estate purchases
Kauai land for $4 milEstate names first CEO
By Rick Daysog
Star-BulletinKamehameha Schools, the state's largest private landowner, has purchased a 15.5-acre parcel on Kauai from Grove Farm Co.
State land records show that the Kamehameha Schools paid more than $4 million for 40 percent of the lots in the Puhi Industrial Park near Lihue.
Completed on Dec. 27., the deal comes as the 135-year-old Grove Farm is considering an offer to buy the financially troubled, family-owned company.
Hugh Klebahn, Grove Farm's chairman and chief executive, referred all questions regarding the deal to Kamehameha Schools. A school spokesman had no comment.
Kamehameha Schools, formerly known as the Bishop Estate, is a tax-exempt charitable trust founded by the 1884 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop to educate children of native Hawaiian ancestry. It owns 300,000 acres statewide.
The trust owns about 11,000 acres on Kauai but those lands are zoned for conservation and agricultural uses; it has been looking to diversify its Kauai holdings.
Founded in the 1860s, Grove Farm owns about 20,000 acres on Kauai, which includes agricultural, commercial and retail properties. The company is the owner of the Kukui Grove Shopping Center in Lihue, the island's largest retail complex. Grove Farm has been facing financial difficulties due to the sluggish Kauai economy. During the early 1990s, the company increased its debts to finance the expansion of its commercial and residential holdings only to see the Garden Isle economy fall with Hurricane Iniki in 1992.
Randolph Moore, a member of the Grove Farm board, confirmed that the company is evaluating an unsolicited buyout offer. But he declined to name the prospective buyer.
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