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Alexander & Baldwin unit buys Oahu shopping center

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  • STAR-ADVERTISER / OCT. 2012

    Manoa Marketplace

Manoa Marketplace has been purchased by A&B Properties Inc., a unit of former Hawaii “Big Five” company Alexander & Baldwin Inc.

The company has purchased both the lease fee interest and the buildings at the 10-acre shopping center.

The purchase was made off-market, meaning the center had not been publicly listed for sale by the local family that previously owned it. The family was not named in the announcement by A&B.

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed, but in its statement A&B describes sales at the center at more than $700 per square foot.

“Manoa Marketplace is one of the strongest performing retail centers on Oahu, and is located in one of its most desirable neighborhoods,” said Chris Benjamin, A&B president and chief executive officer, in a statement. “The acquisitions reflect our continued confidence in the Hawaii real estate market and our belief that grocery-anchored retail centers will continue to outperform other commercial asset types throughout the real estate cycle.”

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  • An excellent business transaction! Beneficial for everyone! Most noteworthy are the shoppers and the residents within the whelm of this shopping center.

    • Come to think of it, haven’t been in one for long time and it was not shop but visit “Ruby’s for warm apple pie and coffee about 3 months ago. This is southern cal.

    • Let me know how that burger, spicy ahi don, chicken katsu plate, etc. you got from Amazon worked out. Very convenient place to shop for groceries, buy lunch, maybe grab a coffee and then head home. Yeah the rents are high and may go higher but you have a pretty loyal captive market (try find parking at lunch time!). The two big banks are leaving but maybe thats for the better!

  • The marketplace has been looking a little run down lately, maybe A&B will spruce it up? But not close it down, I hope. The best shop is Fendu Boulangerie – their bostock is to die for. But it sells out within minutes, so if you’re fortunate enough to be retired, just park your okole and wait for the morning’s batch.

  • would not want to be a tenant there, rents are about to go up…big time -just like A&B did in Kailua. Look for lots of tenant turnover soon as new tenants are brought in to pay the higher rents.

        • Uhhh, no they didn’t. I hope you aren’t getting your information from “out of business” tenants because they tend to fabricate the truth to hide the true reasons for their failed business model.

        • Take a look at average asking rents published by Colliers and others. 100% correlation to A&B acquisition. I have no problem with escalating rents. The problem here is escalating rents are out pacing sales gains by a huge margin. -rent increases at A&B retail properties have far outpaced sales growth. If A&B is touting the $700 per foot sales at the Market Place, then Figure that average rents should be around 10% -12% of that $700 which translates to $7 per foot per month at 12%. I am willing to bet the farm that current rents at the center are nowhere near that figure right now. Conclusion: rents are going way up at Manoa Marketplace. A&B did not buy the center to treat it as an annuity or passive income investment! They bought it to grow and the only way to grow it is to increase revenue by increasing rents -EXACTLY like they did in Kailua…

  • Hold on, Manoa. Look what’s happening to Kailua. Okay, so Kaneohe Ranch started it, but A&B is moving forward with the development. Welcome to Kailuafornia. Manoafornia next?

    • How did you “do the math”? What did you use as a basis for your calculation? The only figure mentioned in this article is the average sales volume produced per square foot at $700.00/sq.ft. You didn’t use that figure and multiply it by the size of the complex did you???? I think you need to ride your bicycle on the bike lanes and go back to school.

  • Now, what are they going to put there? Whole Foods, High-Priced designer shops, expensive restaurants, and High-Rise multi-million dollar condos?

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