Colliers to beef up
real estate research

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By Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.com

Colliers Monroe Friedlander is building up its reporting of commercial real estate trends on Oahu by hiring Mike Y. Hamasu, a market researcher who previously worked in San Francisco, to serve as director of consulting and research.

The appointment comes at a turning point in the Oahu market, with a definite softening as a result of the downturn in the state's economy, Hamasu said yesterday.

Hamasu, a graduate of the University of Hawaii and former employee of Whitney Cressman Ltd. and Cushman & Wakefield, will be in charge of disseminating market information to the firm's clients, as well as the general public.

Preliminary research shows that vacancy in the downtown Honolulu office market reached somewhere between 12.2 percent and 12.5 percent in the fourth quarter, an increase from 10.6 percent last year, Hamasu said. A final report will be available in the coming week. Rental prices are not yet available, but are likely to have fallen, he said.

The retail market was hit even harder by the Sept. 11 events, Hamasu said. The falling value of the yen against the dollar combined with a drop in tourists from Japan is having a double-whammy effect on sales, which would eventually lead to a decrease in tenants. Retail vacancy on Oahu was 6.3 percent at the end of September and will probably hit 10 percent by the end of 2001. "Waikiki is going to be hit pretty hard," Hamasu said.

A brighter spot is the industrial market, which is benefiting from a lack of new development and the redevelopment of Kakaako, but is still weakening overall. A new report from Colliers shows industrial vacancy at 4.4 percent at the end of 2001, up from 3.9 percent in 2000. In the near future, industrial vacancy will probably rise another percentage point, Hamasu said.

Colliers is seeking to capitalize on what it sees as an underreporting of market trends on Oahu, Hamasu said. He noted his position at the firm has been vacant for a year, and was previously subject to heavy turnover. Colliers hopes to build on the research by selling more detailed reports to existing customers as well as new clients. The firm's reports will be released every six months, depending on the amount of change in the market.