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The Nimitz Business Center and two other Hawaii shopping and business complexes previously owned by developer Tom Enomoto have changed hands in a deal worth $45 million. Hawaii complexes sold
Star-Bulletin staff
Local real estate partners Stephen Metter and Mike Wood last week closed on their purchase of the Nimitz center, along with Azeka Place shopping center and Kihei Professional Plaza on Maui. Enomoto had returned the three properties to lender GE Capital Hawaii in June.
Metter said the partners plan to improve the mix of tenants at Nimitz, reconfigure its parking and make it more accessible starting next year. The 155,000-square-foot center is 30 percent vacant and appears "tired and unwelcoming," he said.
The partners will also landscape the Azeka property and search for a tenant to fill 20,000 square feet of space left vacant by Liberty House.
According to records, the partners previously bought Aiea Town Square for $8.5 million and Kihei Kalama Village for $5.9 million out of bankruptcy.
Metter pointed to Kihei Kalama to show the partners' success, since it is now 100 percent occupied. "It's become a kind of signature of Kihei," he said.
Metter said the partners differ from other developers by meeting with community leaders and tenants for to decide how to improve a property.