Hawaiian Dredging gets $52.4M Navy pact

Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. has won a $52.4 million Navy contract to design and build a multistory bachelor-enlisted quarters, as well as a multistory command headquarters and multilevel parking structure, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday.

The contract also calls for renovating an existing bachelor-enlisted quarters and demolishing five command post buildings at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Under the agreement, there is an option to extend that would increase the contract value to $54.5 million. Work is expected to be completed by August 2014.

Hawaiian Dredging was one of a dozen companies that submitted proposals. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii at Pearl Harbor is the contracting agency.

Pacific Office buys California property

Pacific Office Properties Trust has partnered to buy a California office building complex in a move to expand the real estate investment trust’s portfolio.

The San Diego-based company bought the property in Santa Clarita Valley with New York firm Angelo, Gordon & Co. for $31 million.

Most of Pacific Office’s portfolio consists of buildings majority-owned by other investors, though the company wholly owns five Honolulu office buildings.

The new addition is a complex of three buildings with a combined 194,000 square feet of office space on a 13.8-acre site called the Valencia Corporate Center.

25 firms paid CEOs more than Uncle Sam

Twenty-five of the 100 largest U.S. corporations paid their chief executives more than they paid the government in federal income taxes last year, according to a report released Wednesday.

The nonprofit Institute for Policy Studies says the 25 CEOs averaged $16.7 million in salary and other 2010 compensation. Most of the companies they ran, meanwhile, came out ahead at tax time, collecting tax refunds that averaged $304 million, according to its review of public filings.

The 25 firms that paid out more in CEO compensation than U.S. taxes reported average global profits of $1.9 billion, the think tank said.

The institute, based in Washington, describes itself as a community of public scholars that works with social movements to promote democracy and challenge corporate influence and military power.

Among the firms it cited are International Paper Co., Prudential Financial Inc., General Electric Co., Verizon Communications Inc., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Boeing Co., Marsh & McLennan Cos., Stanley Black & Decker Inc., Chesapeake Energy Corp. and eBay Inc.

Suit could chill FDA efforts to keep food safe

WASHINGTON » A major fruit company’s lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration could have a chilling effect on regulators’ efforts to get tainted food off the market.

Florida-based Del Monte Fresh Produce is striking back at the FDA with a lawsuit after the agency halted imports of its Guatemalan cantaloupes, saying they might be contaminated with salmonella. Such a lawsuit is extremely rare, and the threat of litigation could make officials more reluctant to tell the public about the possibility of contamination in food.

"If this case is successful from an industry perspective, it will change the attitude of regulators," said former FDA assistant commissioner David Acheson, now a food safety consultant. "They will obviously be more reluctant."

Demand boosted car-factory orders in July

WASHINGTON » U.S. factory orders rose strongly in July on the biggest jump in demand for autos in more than eight years and a surge in commercial airplane orders. The increase suggests supply chain disruptions created by the Japanese crisis are easing.

Factory orders climbed 2.4 percent, the largest increase since March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Orders for motor vehicles and parts rose 9.8 percent, the largest one-month gain since January 2003.

The increase followed a decline of 0.4 percent in June, one of several reports that stoked fears the country could fall back into a recession.

Economists at RDQ Economics said the July gain suggests manufacturing will grow modestly.

ON THE MOVE

State Rep. Marilyn Lee (D, Mililani-Mililani Mauka-Waipio Acres) has been elected president of the executive board of the Women’s Legislative Network of the National Conference of State Legislatures. The vote took place earlier this month at the Women’s Legislative Network annual business meeting during the NCSL Legislative Summit in San Antonio.

Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel has announced the following: 

» Michael D. Formby has joined the firm as a partner. He is the former interim director of state Department of Transportation.

» Shannon E. Pierce is the firm’s counsel. She previously managed her own practice in Hawaii and California.