Kaneohe Bay mall part of A&B deal

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has agreed to buy the Kaneohe Bay Shopping Center and an Arizona mall, the Honolulu-based company announced yesterday.

The malls, A&B's first on O'ahu and its ninth on the Mainland, are part of the firm's strategy to diversify its property portfolio in recent years. Purchase prices were not disclosed.

A&B has been on a three-year program of Hawai'i property purchases that have grown to $170 million worth of real estate during the period. Overall, the company owns more than 5.4 million square feet of retail, office and industrial space.

The 125,000-square-foot Kaneohe Bay Shopping Center is Windward O'ahu's third-largest center behind Windward Mall and Windward City Shopping Center. The complex, anchored by Safeway and Longs Drug stores, is 98 percent occupied.

A&B bought the property from Fifty Associates, which has owned the center since it was built in 1971.

Norbert Buelsing, executive vice president for A&B subsidiary A&B Properties Inc., said the company was attracted to the center because of quality tenants and recent renovations and expansion.

The 85,000-square-foot Carefree Shopping Center in Carefree, Ariz., serves upscale communities in the Phoenix metropolitan area north of Scottsdale. The center, built in 1988 and bought from a private investor, is 100 percent occupied and anchored by a grocery store, hardware store and a restaurant.

Buelsing said he expects continued growth in the area.

"Grocery-anchored shopping centers, providing basic goods and services to established residential neighborhoods, are a resilient investment choice that, in our experience, provide stable returns," he said.

Among the shopping centers A&B owns and manages are Maui Mall and the Kahului Shopping Center.