Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

California firm buys
Hawaii Kai land

---

By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

A California real estate investment group has bought an undeveloped 43-acre parcel in Hawaii Kai -- formerly pursued by Home Depot Inc. -- and will develop apartments there through its local representative, developer Stanford Carr.

Peninsula-Hawaii Kai LLC completed the purchase of the parcel yesterday for an undisclosed price, according to a statement from the seller, Kamehameha Schools. The land is located on the Kuapa Peninsula, off Lunalilo Home Road and Wailua Street, across Kuapa Pond from Costco.

Atlanta-based Home Depot, which signed an agreement earlier this year to buy the land, is no longer buying the property, said John Dooling, the company's local real estate representative. The agreement had allowed Home Depot to bow out and pick another buyer, he said.

Big-box retailer Home Depot had originally wanted to buy the Hawaii Kai parcel, build a third Oahu retail store, and sell the remaining land to an apartment developer.

But several residents opposed the project. Mayor Jeremy Harris also said he would block Home Depot by opposing a necessary change in zoning to commercial from residential.

Earlier this month, Harris told the Star-Bulletin that Home Depot would abandon the project and that Carr would develop housing there.

Under terms of yesterday's sale, Peninsula-Hawaii Kai can only develop apartment units on the parcel for the next 10 years. After that, the property can be rezoned, the statement said.

Carr will develop a residential project on the parcel, Dooling said.

Carr did not return calls seeking comment.

Peninsula-Hawaii Kai is managed by investors based in Encino, Calif., according to state records.

Previously, a Japan-based company had owned the leasehold interest on the peninsula property, but never followed through with plans to build a massive upscale residential project.

Last year, Carr's Milwaukee Holdings LLC bought Hawaii Land & Farming Co. (formerly C. Brewer Homes Inc.) and later renamed it Kehalani Development Co.

The company is building the Kehalani development on Maui with 2,400 homes and owns about 2,700 acres on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island.

Carr has developed a number of Hawaii housing projects, including the Iwalani at Kapolei. Last year, he and some partners paid $10.4 million for the Times Square Shopping Center in Pearl City.

Home Depot, the nation's largest home-improvement retailer, opened a 145,000-square-foot store in Iwilei one year ago and recently broke ground on a second store in Pearl City.