Azabu USA Corp. plans to sell the 1,152-room Ala Moana Hotel to an unidentified Florida company for an undisclosed amount. There will be no layoffs, Azabu said.
Azabu selling
Ala Moana Hotel
Azabu USA Corp. has signed a binding agreement to sell the Ala Moana Hotel to a Florida company for an undisclosed price.
The agreement, announced yesterday by Mac Yamaguchi, executive vice president of Azabu USA, is expected to close in mid-September.
Azabu did not disclose the identity of the buyer.
The decision to sell the hotel is strategic and comes at a time when the market for hotel properties has been robust, Yamaguchi said. The new owner has indicated that it plans to make substantial renovations to the 34-year-old property.
The buyer has also said that there will be no employee layoffs as a result of the sale, he said.
"It will be business as usual," Yamaguchi said, adding that Azabu will manage the hotel during the transition.
During a late-1980s buying spree, Azabu, which was once one of Hawaii's largest hotel owners, purchased the Ala Moana Hotel along with five others for about $600 million.
However, the company was pushed into a corner when the "bubble economy" burst in the early 1990s, and it slowly lost control of most of its hotels, which once also included the Maui Marriott and the Keauhou Beach Hotel .
The Ala Moana Hotel is the Japanese real estate firm's next-to-last hotel in Hawaii. The company purchased the 1,152-room Atkinson Drive hotel in 1986 for $70 million and later spent $31 million on renovations. The 36-story property offers meeting facilities, restaurants, nightclubs, a pool and fitness center, boutiques and gift shops.
Azabu continues to own the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and King's Village Shopping Center.
