The third time wasn’t the charm, but maybe the fourth will be as a struggling Hawaii company inks another tentative deal to sell downtown Honolulu office tower Clifford Center.
Honolulu-based Pacific Office Properties Trust Inc. said last week in a filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission that it has agreed to sell its 10-story building at 810 Richards St. for $9 million.
The prospective buyer is U. Yamane Ltd., a local real estate firm most known for developing shopping centers in Pearl City and Kalihi decades ago.
The pending sale is projected to close by Feb. 15 if certain conditions are met.
Three prior sale agreements have fallen apart since 2013 at prices that ranged from $9.3 million to $11.2 million with a California company, a Colorado company and local real estate firm Alexander & Baldwin Inc.
U. Yamane was established in 1931 by Uichi Yamane, who arrived in the islands as a laborer in 1896 and became a real estate developer whose projects included Pearl City Shopping Center, Kalihi Shopping Center, Knight’s Inn Restaurant, Kalihi Bowl, Windward Bowl and Leeward Bowl.
The company, today headed by Steven Yamane, sold Kalihi Shopping Center to New City Nissan for $21 million in 2005.
Pacific Office is a major Honolulu office building owner that was formed in 2008 by local real estate investor Jay Shidler as a publicly traded company. The firm once owned 24 properties, though most were sold or lost to foreclosure in recent years amid the economic downturn.
Today, Pacific Office owns 10 office properties in Honolulu, California and Arizona. Four buildings are wholly owned and in Honolulu: Waterfront Plaza, Davies Pacific Center, the Pan Am Building and Clifford Center. The other six are owned through joint ventures.
