'Eccentric' billionaire puts mark on Islands

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Another chapter in Gensiro Kawamoto's always-colorful relationship with Hawai'i's real estate world is winding to a close, but not before he set in motion a flurry of interest that sometimes ended in disappointment for many would-be buyers.

In February, Kawamoto, the 70-year-old flamboyant billionaire from Japan, suddenly put an estimated 60 O'ahu rental homes and condominiums up for sale — only to have many bidders back out once they saw the condition of many of the properties.

Of the sale that included another 570 houses in California, Kawamoto would say only that he needed to raise cash in a hurry to finance rare deals in Japan and on the Mainland.

The sudden appearance of so many homes on the Honolulu market generated even greater interest in a hot real estate market, brokers said.

But in the long run, the weeks of delays, the mystery reason for the sales and a one-day surprise inspection visit by Kawamoto himself served mainly to add to his mystique, they said.

"I would say it just furthered his persona as an eccentric billionaire," said Jim Wright, president and principal broker for Century 21 All Islands.

Today, all but 12 to 15 of Kawamoto's O'ahu homes are in escrow. His California tenants got a three-month extension after he faced fierce opposition from Japanese and U.S. government leaders, including California's governor.

The Hawai'i sales are still going through, though the delays mean Kawamoto "will have to make alternate plans for the funds for his new venture," said his Honolulu attorney, Carol Asai-Sato.

The Hawai'i homes that remain are either up for sale, temporarily off the market awaiting repairs or headed for escrow, she said.

Kawamoto became the symbol of a Japanese real estate boom in Hawai'i in the 1980s, when he paid cash for houses while driving around neighborhoods in a white limousine. He paid $42.5 million for the former Portlock estate of Henry Kaiser, then considered a record real estate purchase price. Kawamoto then walked away when he refused to pay the $1 million-per-year leasehold fee to the Bishop Estate.

Kawamoto paid $19 million for 147 acres in Kihei, Maui, in 1989 and later sold the property for only $1.5 million. He then bought the same parcel back in 1998 for $1.15 million.

In his latest Hawai'i real estate deals, Kawamoto priced his O'ahu homes to move, typically at below-market prices ranging from about $200,000 to more than $800,000. In most cases, Asai-Sato said, the prices are above what Kawamoto paid for them in the 1980s.

But the houses came with a hitch: Buyers had to make their bids without stepping foot inside.

That didn't stop people from bidding. And real estate brokers often found their agents representing several people making offers on the same house.

"There was a feeding frenzy," said Jack Leslein, president and principal broker of East Oahu Realty. "We had so many offers on so many houses."

It took weeks for Kawamoto's representatives to review all the offers and decide which bids to accept.

"There was lots of anxiety," said Jim Mazzola, broker in charge of Coldwell Banker's Windward office, which had bids on about a dozen of Kawamoto's Kailua homes. "People thought they were getting great deals. Then we got inside and were overwhelmed by the amount of work that needed to be done."

One Kailua house had no interior doors because termites had eaten away the door frames, Mazzola said.

Leslein drove around with his son-in-law, a contractor, to look at each of Kawamoto's 40 Hawai'i Kai homes.

"We thought there might be bargains," Leslein said. "We didn't make an offer on any one of them. They were so obviously in a state of disrepair."

In mid-April, Kawamoto suddenly flew from Japan to Hawai'i for one day after news reports about the damage to some of his homes.

"When he saw them, he was appalled at their state of disrepair," Asai-Sato said. Kawamoto immediately pulled off the market two homes in Hawai'i Kai and one in Kailua, she said.

By then, Asai-Sato said, some renters already had moved out and left their belongings on the side of the curb.

For Wright, of Century 21 All Islands, the experience represented nothing more than an interesting flurry in a busy Honolulu housing market.

It showed, once again, the unpredictability of Kawamoto.

"He's a notorious individual who's rich," Wright said. "I guess he can do things that others can't."