Office tower firm widens quarterly loss

The owner of three Honolulu office towers suffered a $4.1 million loss in the third quarter as the company continued an effort to turn around its finances.

Honolulu-based Pacific Office Properties Trust Inc. said in a financial report filed Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its recent loss was up from a $3.1 million loss in the same three-month period ending Sept. 30 last year.

The expanding loss last quarter was principally due to Pacific Office receiving proceeds a year ago from selling a minority stake in a California office building it acquired in 2011.

In Honolulu, Pacific Office owns the Pan Am Building, Waterfront Plaza and Davies Pacific Center. The company said those properties were 85.7 percent leased at the end of September on average, which represented about 160,000 square feet of available space. Pacific Office also owns 5 percent stakes in a building at 1833 Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki and a building in Phoenix.

Pacific Office averted a potentially devastating financial default in August by obtaining a $280.5 million loan from an affiliate of the Japanese company that owns Oahu’s three Don Quijote retail stores. Proceeds from that loan paid off $ 266 million of mortgage debt on the three Honolulu buildings that was set to mature in August, September and November.

As part of the loan deal with Don Quijote (USA) Co. Ltd. that Pacific Office announced in August, Don Quijote agreed to buy the Pan Am Building at 1600 Kapiolani Blvd. for $78.5 million in 2018. The Don Quijote loan matures in August 2019.

To further help Pacific Office, the company’s founder, local real estate investor Jay Shidler, loaned the company $3 million in September.

Pacific Office still has a $25 million debt with First Hawaiian Bank that matures in December.

Shares of Pacific Office stock, which are lightly traded, were priced at 30 cents Wednesday. The previous price in trading was 36 cents on Oct. 21. Share prices over the past 52 weeks have ranged between $1.75 on Jan. 20 and 16 cents on April 18.