Amfac revival plan earns
approval from U.S. court

The plan will retire the debt
of the former Big 5 company

---

By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Amfac Hawaii LLC, the remnant of one Hawaii's "Big Five" companies launched in the 19th Century, has received court approval of a final bankruptcy plan that will leave it as a land development company working with about 5,000 acres on West Maui.

Once the owner of nearly 60,000 acres of Hawaii land, the lessee of 100,000 more and a dominant sugar company in the state, as well as the founder of the Liberty House retail business, the plan approved last week will get Amfac out of debt.

Some 15,500 owners of notes related to land value financed the $1 billion sale of nearly broke Amfac Inc. to Chicago-based JMB Realty in 1988. They can now decide whether to take a small amount of cash or a small ownership in a new Amfac.

They are owed about $140 million. Amfac parent Northbrook Corp., part of JMB, is owed about $185 million.

In the plan approved Thursday by the federal bankruptcy court for Northern Illinois, Northbrook and the holders of the certificates of land appreciation notes become the owners of a new Amfac, which owns some land in the Kaanapali area, where Amfac Inc. developed Hawaii's first master-planned resort.

Amfac's bankruptcy attorney in Chicago did not return calls and neither did Amfac Hawaii's president, Gary Nickele. But court records show the reorganization plan was approved last week and a spokesman for Amfac Hawaii confirmed that yesterday.

The outcome of the case had been expected since Amfac Hawaii's bankruptcy filing in late February. At that time, Northbrook and Amfac proposed a plan that would have creditors end up owning a much-diminished company.

As one of the "Big Five," Amfac started out in 1849 as H. Hackfeld & Co., a German-immigrant sugar business, which changed its name to American Factors because of the anti-German sentiment generated by World War I.

There has been no word about whether the company will change its name again. For now, it is Amfac Hawaii with a final project it calls Kaanapali 2020, which has not yet obtained all of the West Maui community approvals it needs.