Oahu power bills to fall in November

Oahu households will see lower prices on their electricity bills in November.

The typical household bill (600 kilowatt-hours a month) will fall 1.5 percent to $145.46 from $147.64 in October.

On the Big Island the typical bill will decrease 3 percent to $200.17 from $206.35.

However, on Maui a typical bill will edge up 0.9 percent to $167.29 from $165.76.

The effective rates, which include fuel and other charges, for October are 22.7 cents/kwh for Oahu, 31.62 cents/kwh for the Big Island and 26.54 cents/kwh for Maui.

MLP's pineapple exit to cost $16.8M

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. said it will incur costs of at least $16.8 million for terminating its pineapple operations by the end of the year.

The company, which said earlier this week that it would lay off up to 283 employees, or 45 percent of its company, said 208 positions will come from subsidiary Maui Pineapple Co., including 193 positions covered by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union.

“;The decision was made due to highly competitive fresh pineapple markets on the mainland USA in which MPC was unable to recover the high cost of growing Hawaiian pineapple,”; MLP said in yesterday's filing.

MLP said it is not currently able to estimate the cost of termination of its private-grower pineapple supply contract.

Mesa Air loses CRJ-200 deal with United

PHOENIX » Mesa Air Group Inc. said yesterday that United Airlines did not extend an agreement under which Mesa operated 26 regional jets for the larger carrier. Mesa operates the CRJ-200 aircraft under a code-sharing agreement with United. Mesa, which also flies the same aircraft for go! Mokulele, said it expects to exit the service by the end of April. Mesa also operates planes for other regional operations of major carriers, including Delta Connection and US Airways Express.

24 Hour Fitness opens in Pearl City

24 Hour Fitness opened yesterday at the former CompUSA store in Pearl Highlands Center.

The 46,000-square-foot club at 1000 Kamehameha Highway will be managed by Michael Quezeda and employ about 50 people. It is the eighth 24 Hour Fitness club to be built on Oahu.

The facility offers an indoor pool, steam room and full-size basketball court among its amenities. Free seven-day passes to the club are available at http://www.24hourfitness.com.

AAA Five Diamond winners for 2010

La Mer and Chef Mavro restaurants and three Hawaii hotels have been named AAA Five Diamond Award winners for 2010. It is the 20th consecutive year for La Mer, at Halekulani, and the second year in a row for Chef Mavro.

Hawaii's Five Diamond winning hotels and the number of consecutive years each has won the distinction are Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea (19), the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua (14) and Four Seasons Resort Hualalai (12).

Of the 58,000 properties AAA's full-time evaluators inspect each year, 0.28 percent earn the top award.

On the Move

» Carlsmith Ball said Mary Jane Connell has been appointed a regent for the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. She is a partner and member of the Carlsmith Ball tax, estate planning and wealth management practice group as well as only the third attorney from Hawaii to serve on the board of regents in ACTEC's 60-year history.

» The American Marketing Association Hawaii Chapter has selected its new volunteer board of directors for the current one-year term beginning July 2009: Frank Haas, president; Keith DeMello, president elect; Paul Dyson, past president; David Bower, secretary; Gordon Tom, treasurer; Tammy Chang, membership; John Medlock, programming; Jeremy Althof, collegiate relations; Sara Matsuura, at large; Mark Martinez, volunteers; and Bryna Stankiewicz, marketer of the year.

» Pacific Islands Institute has hired C. Haunani Maunu-Hendrix as vice president of sales. Her experience includes hotel sales and destination management.

» Marcus and Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has named Douglas Pothul as senior associate of its new office in Honolulu. He has more than 20 years' experience in the real estate industry.