Posted on: Saturday, February 2,2002

Ocean Resort hotel sold

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Sports Shinko, of Tokyo, which last week sold three Hawai'i golf courses, has sold the 450-room Ocean Resort Hotel Waikiki for an estimated $5.5 million.

The company has assigned the lease to OR LLC, a firm affiliated with local developer Bert A. Kobayashi, according to state filings.

Sports Shinko notified the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations yesterday that the hotel's buyer plans to offer employment to "all or substantially all" 94 Ocean Resort employees.

"We expect (the hotel) to continue pretty much the way it is right now," said Wayne Tanigawa, chief financial officer of Kobayashi Development.

Doug Pothul, a senior vice president of Colliers Monroe Friedlander, which listed the hotel for sale, would not comment on the purchase price. But another person involved in the leasehold transaction said it was $5.5 million.

Sports Shinko bought the interest in the Ocean Resort for $46.5 million in 1990.

Last Friday, Kobayashi's KG Holdings LLC paid $12.4 million for Sports Shinko's Mililani Golf Club, Pukalani Country Club and Kiahuna Golf Club.