The president of Alexander & Baldwin Inc.’s real estate subsidiary plans to retire, which will set off changes in top management of the Honolulu-based company.

Norb Buelsing, a 20-year veteran of A&B, will retire as president of A&B Properties Inc., the company announced yesterday.

A date is being kept flexible to allow A&B to cover Buelsing’s impending departure.

A&B said Chris Benjamin will move from his roles as A&B’s chief financial officer and general manager of company subsidiary Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. to become president of A&B Land Group. He will oversee A&B’s land and agriculture divisions.

The company plans to recruit a new CFO through global executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.

Assuming the HC&S general manager position will be Rick W. Volner Jr., a Maui native who joined HC&S in 1997 and is the Maui firm’s vice president of agricultural operations.

Volner’s promotion will be effective April 1. Benjamin’s new appointment and Buelsing’s retirement will take effect when a new CFO is hired.

Buelsing has been with A&B since 1990, starting as a vice president with the company’s real estate and agriculture subsidiary, then known as A&B-Hawaii Inc. He became president of the present real estate subsidiary in 2008.

Stan Kuriyama, A&B president and chief executive officer, credited Buelsing with positioning A&B Properties remarkably well to weather the recent economic downturn, and said he deserves credit for helping expand the company’s commercial real estate portfolio from 16 properties in 1990 to 46 properties today. "Norb has been an invaluable contributor to A&B over the past 20 years," Kuriyama said in a statement.