A&B buys
Napili Plaza
for $7.1 milSeller Maui Land & Pineapple
also is in the process of closing
a larger transaction for
Queen Kaahumanu Center
Alexander & Baldwin Inc. said it has purchased the Napili Plaza shopping center on Maui for $7.1 million. The seller was Maui Land & Pineapple Co., which developed the 45,000-square-foot center in 1991.
MLP disclosed June 11 that it had found a buyer for the center but did not name the business.
A&B said yesterday that its A&B Properties Inc. subsidiary made the purchase, which includes four acres of fee-simple land. The neighborhood center is between the resort areas of Kaanapali and Kapalua. The center is 75 percent occupied and A&B said its sales have grown 9 percent this year because of the opening of a nearby 184-unit condominium.
A&B is pleased with the performance of the center and has no plans for changes, according to spokeswoman Linda Howe.
"We're hoping that with the increase in population in that area, there've been some new developments go in, that will make it better," she said.
A&B Properties now owns 26 commercial properties in Hawaii and 13 on the mainland.
Officials of MLP were not available for comment late yesterday.
The company said in June that a buyer had been found for its other center, the Queen Kaahumanu Center in Kahului, more than 10 times the size of the Napili Plaza at 570,000 square feet. MLP has not revealed the name of the buyer or the terms of the deal.
However, Real Estate Alert, a weekly newsletter published out of Hoboken, N.J., said the buyer is Los Angeles-based Somera Investment Partners LLC and the purchase price is approximately $80 million.
Rick Humphreys, investment committee chairman for the state Employees' Retirement System, has confirmed that Somera is the purchaser. The Queen Kaahumanu Center is half-owned by MLP and half by the ERS.
MLP has been rearranging its businesses since losing $5.7 million last year and another $626,000 in the first quarter of 2003. Its midyear results for 2003 are expected to be released next week.
