$90 mil bid for
Amfac Center

The purchase by an L.A.
businessman is expected to
close at the end of next month

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By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.com

A wealthy California investor is acquiring the Amfac Center downtown, in a deal valued at more than $90 million.

John Anderson, owner of Paradise Beverages in Hawaii, said he has reached an agreement with owner MFD Partners LLC to purchase the twin-tower building.

Anderson, the namesake of the University of California Los Angeles' business school, said he hopes to complete the transaction by the end of October.

Anderson declined to disclose the purchase price but several real estate executives familiar with the deal said the purchase price is about $94 million.

A New York executive at MFD's parent, Mitsui Fudosan, declined comment.

Mitsui Fudosan purchased the building in January 1998 for $141.5 million.

Anderson, 82, is a regularly listed in Forbes magazines' survey of the nation's wealthiest individuals.

He ranks 345th this year with a net worth of $750 million. His company, Topa Equities Ltd., is a diversified holding company with interests in insurance, auto dealerships and beverages, including Paradise Beverages.

In 1995, UCLA named its business school for Anderson after he donated $15 million to the university.

Anderson said the recent terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C., which has roiled the nation's financial markets and battered Hawaii's tourism industry, has not deterred his optimism for Hawaii's economy.

"I am very bullish on Hawaii," Anderson said. "I think it has a great future and I'm very proud to be a part of it."