Maui center
fetches $27 milThe purchase of Piilani Village
by a company in California includes
both the land and the complex
California-based Krausz Cos. has purchased Maui's Piilani Village Shopping Center and most of the land under it for $27 million.
The shopping center was sold by Safeway Partnership to Krausz in a 1031 exchange. Safeway was represented by Wendall Brooks III of PM Realty Group.
Krausz purchased the 15-acre shopping center to partially fulfill an exchange requirement from its earlier $148 million sale of Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry, Calif.
The Kihei complex is 97 percent occupied with tenants such as Blockbuster Video, Roy's restaurant and Outback Steakhouse, according to retail brokerage firm Faris Lee Investments, which handled the sale for Krausz.
Safeway, which will still own its own parcel of land and is the anchor tenant, originally developed the shopping center.
Faris Lee President Richard Walter said the sale was particularly desirable for Krausz because it included the land as well as the shopping center.
He also said that a supermarket-anchored retail center rarely come up for sale.
"The sale included an uncommon component because the property included a fee land title, which entitled the land to the buyer as well as the center," he said.
Most shopping centers that come up for sale in Hawaii sit on leasehold land, said Andres Albano, vice president with commercial real estate firm, CB Richard Ellis.
"So from that standpoint, (Walter) is right," Albano said.
Albano also noted the center has been characterized as a resort shopping center even though it does attract a good number of buyers who live in the area.
"This is really a resort shopping center in the eyes of some of these purchasers," Albano said. "I know others we've talked to about it at various times view it that way. But what that means is that the risk factor changes because it's going to be more volatile. If for some reason visitors don't come, then you lose a big percentage of business."
Recognizable tenants in the complex likely helped the seller get a good price for the property, he said.
