Kalaeloa developer to sell leftover parcels

A development firm that acquired 540 acres of the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station at Kalaeloa five years ago is offering to sell a few pieces of the property being excluded from its master plan for the area.

Hunt Cos. said six "remnant" parcels covering a total of 15 acres don’t fit well with its master plan calling for roughly 4,000 homes, retail, a light industrial park and other commercial space.

The six parcels, which include a former federal fire station, a church and a Navy commissary that became a Tamura’s Market grocery store under a lease with Hunt, are listed for sale through the local commercial real estate brokerage firm Sofos Realty Corp.

Hunt hopes the parcels will collectively fetch $23.3 million.

The parcels for sale are not separated from Hunt’s other holdings at Kalaeloa except for the Tamura’s site, but they represent six of the seven smallest pieces received from the Navy.

"These are parcels we don’t consider essential parts of our master plan," said Steve Colon, president of the Hawaii development division of Texas-based Hunt. "They are outliers. They don’t fit into the master plan."

Most of the parcels have buildings occupied by tenants, including a contractor, two churches and Tamura’s. One parcel with an office building and one with an industrial building are not being used.

The Navy closed its 3,700-acre military base at Kalaeloa in 1999, and has conveyed much of the land to the state.

Hunt acquired its land at the former base in 2009 from the Navy through a lease that requires Hunt to take fee-simple ownership of all the land within 40 years. Hunt is in the process of converting the lease for the six parcels to fee-simple ownership for sale.

The Navy structured its complicated deal with Hunt to obtain fair market value for the property in part by swapping the Kalaeloa land for land at Ford Island that the Navy previously conveyed to a Hunt affiliate as part of an earlier contract to privatize military housing development.

Last year, Hunt unveiled its master plan for its Kalaeloa land. An initial housing phase would convert some former military barracks into about 100 rental apartments. That project is still undergoing design and permitting work.

The first completed piece of the plan is a 5-megawatt photovoltaic farm on 20 acres that began operating last year. Other parts of the plan include a retail marketplace, school facilities, 60 acres of open space and converting one of the former base’s main roads, Saratoga Avenue, into a Main Street.

Hunt says its master plan dubbed Ho’ala Kalaeloa, or Renew Kalaeloa, will be completed by 2030.