Kaimuki Plaza purchased for $20.8M

Central Pacific Bank’s Kaimuki Plaza has been sold for $20.8 million to Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union and CUSO of Hawaii Services LLC.

CPB Properties owned Kaimuki Plaza at 3465 Waialae Ave., one of the few class A buildings in the area, according to Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union.

Built in 1995, the building has 61,669 square feet of office space housing tenants including Central Pacific Bank, Integrated Services Inc., Chinaka & Co. and Sky River Management. CUSO of Hawaii is the leasing agent.

"It will provide Aloha Pacific with much-needed office space as we expand our operations," said Wallace Watanabe, Aloha Pacific president and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. Details on which credit union offices will move to the building haven’t been determined, but existing tenants will not be affected, the credit union said.

Retail trickle may spur holiday deals

NEW YORK » Shoppers took a breather in October, resulting in lackluster gains for retailers and raising the stakes on what is sure to be a competitive holiday season.

For Christmas shoppers, that means that heavy discounts will be coming early and often.

The International Council of Shopping Centers index measuring revenue at stores open at least a year showed a 1.6 percent increase in October, the weakest performance since April’s 0.8 percent increase.

Trucks top cars in October sales

DETROIT » Trucks outsold cars by the highest margin in nearly five years in October, a small sign that the economy may be starting to improve. These trucks aren’t the tractor-trailers that haul freight. They were vehicles such as pickups, SUVs, minivans and smaller SUVs, which made up 54 percent of all U.S. vehicle sales according to industry tracker J.D. Power and Associates, while cars made up 46 percent of the market. That’s the biggest margin of difference between the two categories since December 2005, when trucks accounted for 56 percent of sales.

Starbucks net income nearly doubles

NEW YORK » As more people visited Starbucks cafes and spent more at the end of summer, the company’s fourth-quarter net income nearly doubled, handily beating estimates, and the company raised its target yesterday for fiscal 2011 profit. The world’s largest cafe chain earned $278.9 million, or 37 cents a share, in the quarter that ended Oct. 3. That compares with $150 million, or 20 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 17.2 percent to $2.84 billion.

Analysts on average expected the Seattle company to earn 32 cents a share on revenue of $2.77 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Mortgage rates up slightly to 4.24%

WASHINGTON » Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages edged up this week to an average of 4.24 percent, still close to their lowest level in decades. The average rate for 30-year fixed loans rose from 4.23 percent the previous week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said yesterday. It was the third weekly increase in a row. Rates fell last month to 4.19 percent, the lowest average on records dating back to 1971. The average rate on 15-year fixed loans fell to 3.63 percent this week from 3.66 percent a week earlier.

ON THE MOVE

A&B Properties has named Kimberly Lord vice president for asset management. She will be responsible for overseeing the management of the company’s leased properties on the mainland and in Hawaii as well as management of third-party fee managers and contracted leasing agents. Lord was previously a managing director of asset services at CB Richard Ellis for nine years as well as vice president for Chaney, Brooks & Co. for 12 years.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has named John Ark as a financial adviser. He previously completed the firm’s investment studies program in New York and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Hawaii Pacific Health announced that 28 physicians have contracted to use its new electronic medical record and practice management systems called HealthAdvantage CONNECT. The physicians are from the University Clinical, Education & Research Associates obstetrics and gynecology department of the John A. Burns School of Medicine. HealthAdvantage CONNECT provides physicians with an integrated EMR and practice management system, which provides coordination between scheduling, clinical documentation, registration and billing.