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A&B to buy Alexander & Baldwin Inc. said it has agreed to buy the Pacific Guardian Tower, an 18-story office building on Kapiolani Boulevard across from the entrance to Ala Moana Center. The price was not disclosed.
Kapiolani high-rise
The 18-story Pacific Guardian
Tower is 98% leased outBy Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin
The seller was Tosei Shoji Co., which developed the building and opened it in early 1990 as the Commerce Tower. A&B said both parties agreed to keep the price confidential. The purchase is scheduled to close by January, A&B said.
The building has 124,000 square feet of office space and is 98 percent leased out, with the major tenants being Pacific Guardian Life , Cheap Tickets Inc. and Territorial Savings.
A&B said it is also buying a two-story building next door, also for an undisclosed price, and the two buildings have a total land area of 46,000 square feet.
"The property is one of the most attractive and well-constructed new buildings in Honolulu," said W. Allen Doane, A&B president and chief executive officer. "It could not be better located, as it is directly across from Ala Moana Shopping Center, on the corner of Kapiolani and Keeaumoku, and next to the proposed Wal-Mart development," Doane said.
While A&B has been investing heavily in real estate on the mainland in recent years, it has also been putting money into Hawaii properties and the Pacific Guardian Tower deal will be its ninth Hawaii property buy in the last two years, Doane said.
A&B's recent purchases on Oahu included three office buildings -- Ocean View Center, Haseko Center and the Judd Building, all in downtown Honolulu -- the Hawaii Business Park in Pearl City and the Mill Town Business Center in Waipahu.
A&B also acquired three land parcels on Maui, two of them residential and one for retail development. The latest properties will bring the company's Hawaii portfolio to 23 commercial properties and its total commercial-property holdings on the mainland and in Hawaii to 5.3 million square feet.