Lender to take over
Aloha Tower complex

The deal will let the center
emerge from its 2002 bankruptcy

The lender of the Aloha Tower Marketplace in Honolulu will assume ownership of the waterfront retail and entertainment complex in a deal that will allow the project to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris on Tuesday approved a plan to sell the 165,000-square-foot center to a unit controlled by Apollo Real Estate Advisors for $25 million.

The deal will allow the new owners to pay more than $200,000 in delinquent rent owed to the state, which owns the fee interest to Aloha Tower. More than half the debt owed to the project's unsecured creditors also will be paid.

Built in 1994 at a cost of $100 million, the center has been a subject of a decade of complex litigation between lenders, creditors and builders.

The current owner, Aloha Tower LP, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in January 2002, listing debts of more than $100 million. Aloha Tower LP is headed by local attorney Jon Miho and developers Charles Sweeney and George Ruff.

The center's prior owner, Aloha Tower Associates, also filed for bankruptcy protection in the late 1990s, forcing the project's sale to Aloha Tower LP.