Furniture store lawsuits settled

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

This is the storefront of the now-vacant INspiration furniture store at Pearlridge Center. Thomas Sorensen, owner of INspiration Hawaii Inc. and Pearlridge Uptown 2, said he is negotiating with mainland restaurant chains to fill the 25,000-square-foot space.

INspiration Interiors, a 13-year-old home furnishings business, is no longer at the center of multiple lawsuits between former partners and has moved out of its former flagship location at Pearlridge Center.

Thomas Sorensen has become the sole owner of INspiration Hawaii Inc. and Pearlridge Uptown 2, which includes the complex formerly occupied by J.C. Penney, as part of a confidential settlement this week of breach of contract lawsuits involving his former partner, Peter Skaaning.

Skaaning previously held a 50 percent ownership stake in the company and Pearlridge Uptown 2.

Sorensen said he is negotiating with mainland restaurant chains -- some of which would be new to Hawaii -- various retail operations and medical-related companies to fill the 25,000-square-foot space at Pearlridge by early 2011.

"There's definitely a need for restaurants in the Pearl City area, and with the visibility of the building and surrounding available parking, it's a good site," he said.

INspiration moved out of the building in mid-June as part of a strategy to consolidate operations to the $27 million Honolulu Design Center, an 80,000-square-foot complex -- solely owned by Sorensen -- which opened in 2007.

Sorensen is also looking to consolidate warehouse operations with a retail storefront in Central Oahu. INspiration has an 80,000-square-foot warehouse, whose lease expires in four years, at Campbell Industrial Park.

In an effort to capture more market share, the company launched a website last month offering free shipping to the neighbor islands.

Gross sales are up 20 percent in the first half of the year compared with the year-earlier period, he said.

Sorensen founded Scan/Line Inc. in 1979, then sold it to a former partner in 1987. He moved to Reno, Nev., and opened a furniture manufacturing company before returning to the islands in 1997 and establishing INspiration at Pearlridge.

Peter Skaaning joined INspiration in 1999 and became part owner of the business shortly afterward. He left the company in May 2009.

The former friends and business partners, who are both natives of Denmark, had a falling out amid accusations of self-dealing and dishonoring contracts, according to lawsuits filed a year ago in federal court, as well as state courts in Nevada and Hawaii.

A settlement was reached Tuesday.

Big Island attorney Jerry Hiatt, who represented Skaaning, said, "We're pleased that the matter has settled amicably."

Sorensen added that he is relieved that the lawsuits are over.

"It's hard to have a straight head when litigation's going on," Sorensen said.

"What I've learned is that you certainly don't win anything by litigating."

The settlement left Skaaning with 50 percent ownership in INspiration's Vancouver, British Columbia, operations, which he runs with his brother, Steen Skaaning.

"These two companies are like Thomas' children, and I know that he's very pleased that he can continue to grow them after what was really a divorce," said Sorensen's attorney, Jim Bickerton.