Construction is likely to begin by the end of this year on The Collection, a complex with 467 condo units at the old CompUSA site in Kakaako, the president of Alexander &Baldwin Inc. said Thursday.

Christopher Benjamin, president and chief operating officer of the Honolulu-based property development and agriculture company, said more than 60 percent of the units in the planned 43-story tower have been sold.

A&B is developing the project on land it has arranged to buy from Kamehameha Schools.

In addition to the tower, the project includes 54 units in a four-story building and 16 three-story townhouses. Those 70 units have not been put up for sale yet, but will be offered later this year.

Benjamin said when 60 percent of all units — including the tower and low-rise units — are sold, A&B should be able to begin construction, and he expects that to be before the end of this year.

Benjamin spoke about The Collection following a luncheon address to the Hawaii Society of Business Professionals at the Hawaii Prince Hotel.

In his speech Benjamin reviewed the nearly $1 billion in purchases the company made last year, including $375 million for Kaneohe Ranch, the owner of most of Kailua town; $232 million for Grace Pacific LLC, a road paving company; and $128 million for 30 properties formerly owned by Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto in the upscale Kahala neighborhood.

Kahala is "a great neighborhood that was blighted by the way these properties were handled," Benjamin said. Kawamoto left most of his homes vacant with overgrown yards and poorly maintained houses. He filled some of the yards with Greco-Roman-style statues, saying he intended to one day open a museum.

A&B sold off Kawamoto’s artifacts at an auction last year, cleaned up the properties and put them up for sale.

"Everybody I know who lives in Kahala has thanked us," Benjamin said. He added that he often jogs along Kahala Avenue, where most of the homes are located, and people who recognize him thank him for sprucing up the Kawamoto properties.

A&B paid $178 million for the 30 Kahala properties and has sold 11 of them for $55 million, Benjamin said. The company expects its rate of return on the properties to exceed 20 percent, Benjamin said, adding that "it’s too early to declare victory" with only 11 properties sold.

The Kahala property sales were a major factor behind higher profit for A&B in the fourth quarter. A&B reported in February that its income in the last three months of 2013 more than doubled to $22.5 million from $8.7 million in the same quarter the year before.

As for Kailua town, where A&B owns 70 percent of all commercially zoned land, the company has no plans for any major changes, said Jeff Pauker, A&B properties project manager-acquisitions.

"We bought it as is and we like it as is," Pauker said at the same luncheon.  

A&B completed its purchase of much of downtown Kailua from Kaneohe Ranch and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation on Dec. 20.

"Kailua is just an awesome place," said Pauker. Retailers in Kailua tend to have "very stable cash flow," he said. 

Occupancy of the retail space remained high during the recent economic downturn.

"Folks that live in Kailua are the kind of people retailers get excited about," Pauker said. The high levels of income and education produce "exogenous demand," he said, referring to when demand increases more than economic models predict.