A Newport Beach, Calif.-based real estate investment company has bought its first Hawaii property, Mililani Shopping Center, from Alexander & Baldwin Inc.

Stoneridge Capital Partners, owned by the Merage family, paid $50.3 million in cash for the 31-year-old, 180,300-square-foot property.

“;We think that market is a great long-term hold for us,”; said Stoneridge Chief Executive Officer Greg Merage yesterday in a phone interview. “;It has strong fundamentals and good occupancy in a stable, master-planned community.”;

The final sale price was about $5 million less than A&B's initial asking price. However, A&B purchased the property in 2002 from the Morita Co. for $30.2 million, which was $1 million less than what the previous owner paid for it.

A&B Properties President Norbert Buelsing said the center's sale supports the company's real-estate strategy of achieving favorable pricing in dispositions.

“;During our eight-year ownership of Mililani, we focused on marketing programs to increase customer traffic and invested in facilities upgrades to improve the property's value,”; Buelsing said. “;These initiatives resulted in a 39 percent increase in net rent and a 66 percent increase in average tenant sales, while maintaining a 98 percent average occupancy at the center.”;

Alexander & Baldwin, one of Hawaii's historic “;Big Five”; companies, was founded in the sugar business in the 1800s. With the decline of agriculture, its largest subsidiary is now Matson Navigation Co.

The center has about 50 tenants and is anchored by Foodland, Ross Dress for Less and 24 Hour Fitness. It was the first shopping center in Mililani, starting with offices in 1969 and retail in 1976.

Stoneridge's advisory board chairman, Paul Merage, founded Chef America Inc., of Hot Pockets fame, and sold the company to Nestle in 2002 for $2.6 billion. Stoneridge was founded the year after.

Greg Merage said the company will make cosmetic improvements at the center, including landscaping, sidewalks, paint, parking and the roof. He said Stoneridge has allocated about $400 million to invest in the next few years, and Hawaii will be among its focus. He did not provide a figure for how much the company plans to invest in Mililani.

Mililani is Stoneridge's second all-cash transaction with A&B Properties in the past two months. Last month, Stoneridge acquired the Village at Indian Wells, a 104,600-square-foot neighborhood retail center in Indian Wells, Calif., for $20 million.

“;We've been pretty conservative and haven't invested much in the last few years,”; he said, saying that no acquisitions were made from 2006 through some of last year. “;But we've been selling assets, repatriating investments abroad, and we're just starting to get active again.

“;Hopefully this is the first of many for us.”;

A&B Properties also said it acquired the Meadows on the Parkway Shopping Center, a 216,400 square-foot retail center in Boulder, Colo., for $30.8 million.