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With prices surging,
former Gov. Cayetano
lists house for $6.5M

THE most recent former governor and first lady of the state recently put their Waialae Iki home on the market with Choi International for $6.5 million, but it is unlikely they will move.

The 5,782-square-foot, two-story home was built in 2002, during Ben Cayetano's last year in office. Ben and Vicky Cayetano bought the 2.7-acre property for $900,000 from the Thomas H. Gentry Revocable Trust in 1998, when the couple still lived in Washington Place.

The Cayetanos later moved from the official governor's mansion to the former governor's mansion.

Vicky Cayetano is vice chairwoman of United Laundry Services Inc., a Honolulu-based company that does laundry for commercial customers such as hotels and hospitals.

Homeowners all over Waialae Iki are putting up for-sale signs, Ben Cayetano said yesterday. "Just like everybody else, we threw out something to test the market. We're not going to move," he said.

"We just put up a trial balloon, like a lot of our neighbors ... at the suggestion of a neighbor," Cayetano said.

The couple has five dogs. Well, four small dogs and a German shepherd, the former governor said.

"The dogs are a big consideration."

In addition, if somebody were to make an offer for the stately home that the governor-with-the-bulldog reputation could not refuse, the Cayetanos would have to find another home nearby.

"My wife likes this side of the island," Cayetano said.

The home is in a gated community, so the prospect of anybody from the joe-six-pack side of the tracks getting a gander at the guv's gables is unlikely.

Since leaving office, Cayetano said he has spent his time teaching and writing a book for Watermark Publishing.

"It's kind of a memoir; it's political. It's a book about politics," he said.

Will it become the next "Catch a Wave," which is considered a primer to the Hawaii political scene?

Cayetano laughed, "I'm writing it as much for myself as for any commercial purpose."

Hooters for sale

Chicken wings, and other assets that Hooters restaurants are famous for, may be sold to an unnamed buyer.

The Georgia-based restaurant chain with some 400 locations around the world told the state last week that it is in discussions for the sale of its restaurant business.

That would affect 52 employees at Hooters of Honolulu Inc. if the sale is consummated around Sept. 16, the company said. Hooters officials did not return repeated calls.