Pioneer Plaza
adds big tenant

Educational center leaves
Alii Place for digs across town

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

In what its managers call a real estate coup, Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu has won a nonprofit educational institution away from Alii Place, a few blocks away at Alakea and Hotel streets.

Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, which has space on three floors of Alii Place, will move in December into 30,000 square feet of space in Pioneer Plaza.

"They've taken the whole 19th floor and the 13th and 2,000 square feet on the arcade level," which fronts the Fort Street Mall between King Street and Merchant Street, said Steve Metter, principal of MW Group Ltd., which manages Pioneer Plaza. PREL was facing the end of a lease at Alii Place and was looking for a new location, Metter said.

John W. Kofel, PREL president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that Pioneer Plaza "met our needs better than any other property in the downtown area."

Kofel said his organization likes the building's open floor plan, location and high-technology infrastructure.

The move opens up room for new tenants in Alii Place, said its leasing agent, Grubb & Ellis/CBI Inc.