Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has earned its biggest return yet selling one of 30 Kahala Avenue residential properties it acquired from Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto last year.

The Honolulu-based firm sold two adjacent vacant parcels that include 132 feet of beach frontage for $19.4 million Thursday, according to broker Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties.

Anne Perry, one of three Coldwell Pacific agents brokering the A&B Kahala properties, said she was not at liberty to identify the buyer, but said the buyer intends to build a residence on the combined roughly 1.5-acre property at 4653 and 4653B Kahala Ave.

"It’s a buyer who believes in the prestige of the avenue," she said. "We’re really starting to see the character of the avenue come back."

A&B has sold 17 of the 30 former Kawamoto properties on Kahala Avenue that it bought for $128 million after authorities in Japan arrested the enigmatic tycoon on tax evasion charges.

Kawamoto had planned to establish gardens on some of the parcels and convert a few homes into museums. The parcels that sold Thursday were slated for the former.

The two parcels were once the estate of Cecily Johnston and contained two homes. A trustee for Johnston’s estate and the Hawaii Opera Theatre sold the parcels to Kawamoto for $22 million in 2010, according to property records.

Kawamoto demolished the homes, and then adorned the lots with dozens of statues including lions and partially robed Grecian figures. A&B removed the statues and auctioned them off along with a collection of art and furniture that Kawamoto had accumulated for his plan.

Perry said the two lots were sold before they were listed. Coldwell Pacific has seven former Kawamoto properties listed for sale, including a similar-size parcel next to the former Johnston estate that includes a mansion and is listed for $22 million.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story reported the address of the homes as 4635 and 4635B.