Getty buys 11 isle gas stations

The purchase of the Aloha Petroleum sites is part of a larger deal

Getty Realty Corp., the largest publicly traded real estate investment trust in the United States, has acquired 11 Aloha Petroleum gas stations in Hawaii and a limited leasehold interest in seven other Aloha stations from GE Capital Solutions.

The deal, which closed Friday and was announced yesterday, was part of an overall $78 million Getty transaction involving 59 convenience store and gas station properties in nine states.

All of the Aloha stations involved in the transaction previously were purchased by Aloha from Mahalo in October 2005. Most of the stations were rebranded Aloha although the Mahalo name still exists. Overall, Aloha operates about 80 stations in the state.

Getty, based in Jericho, N.Y., said it expects to acquire additional properties from Scottsdale, Ariz.-based GE Capital in the next 30 days under a previously announced 68-property transaction announced in mid-February. The Aloha Petroleum properties and others that were acquired previously were owned by Trustreet Properties Inc., but Trustreet was purchased by GE Capital at the end of February.

The fee-simple Aloha properties acquired by Getty are under a long-term lease and still will be operated by Aloha, Getty spokesman Kevin Shea said.

"The motoring public will see no change," he said. "Aloha will continue to operate them as they see fit."

Shea said Getty will have "a very, very, very limited leasehold interest" in the other seven Aloha properties.

He said Getty didn't break out the value of the Hawaii purchase because of an agreement it had with the seller.

"We purchased these properties pursuant to an existing lease to Aloha," Shea said. "The lease remains in full force and our relationship with Aloha is that of a landlord tenant. We're a real estate investment trust. We don't operate gas stations; we just invest in the properties."