Posted on: Monday, July 9, 2001

$800M sought for four hotels

Advertiser Staff and News Services

The Japanese railway and development company that owns the four Prince Resorts in Hawai'i is quietly putting the properties up for sale, a real estate newsletter reported.

Real Estate Finance & Investment, a publication of Institutional Investor Inc., cited unnamed sources yesterday in reporting that Seibu Railway Company is seeking about $800 million total, or about $200 million each, for the four hotels: the Hawai'i Prince Hotel Waikiki, the Maui Prince Hotel, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and Hapuna Beach Hotel.

Former Gov. George Ariyoshi, president of Prince Resorts Hawai'i, said today there has been lots of speculation but Seibu is not actively marketing the properties.

The move by Seibu would fit the recent pattern in which Japanese hotel owners have sold properties in Hawai'i to raise cash to cope with a slumping economy at home.

In January, Blackstone Group Inc. bought the Hyatt Regency Maui for about $200 million from Kokusai Jidosha, a Japanese taxi and limousine company. In December, Marriott International Inc. bought the Ritz Carlton Kapalua Hotel on Maui for $143 million from Nissho Iwai Corp., a Japanese trading company.