Kakaako condos attract early birds

Studio condominiums in Kakaako with 475 square feet of living space and priced from $349,000 to about $375,000 have attracted a fair amount of interest from prospective buyers prepared to sleep overnight Friday outside the sales office for the project called The Lofts @ The Collection.

An initial prospective buyer showed up at 1 a.m. Friday to be first in line for the opening of the sales office at 9 a.m. Saturday, according to a project representative. By midday, about a dozen people had lined up.

Project developer Alexander & Baldwin Inc. announced on Friday the sales offering for 27 of 54 mostly studio condos in a four-story building connected with a planned 43-story tower on the site of a former CompUSA store at the corner of South Street and Ala Moana Boulevard.

Besides 24 studios, three units with two bedrooms and 800 square feet of living space are available and priced from $540,999 to a little over $580,000.

Tower unit sales began in August 2013. A&B said earlier this month that about 65 percent of the 397 tower units have been sold. A third phase of 16 town houses has yet to be offered for sale. Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year and finish about two years later.