A&B buys California shopping center
By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer
Alexander & Baldwin Inc. yesterday said it has purchased a shopping center in Long Beach, Calif., for $19.55 million, continuing its expansion of its real-estate portfolio.
In the past three years, the company's real estate subsidiary, A&B Properties, has acquired 17 commercial and development properties, representing a total capital investment of more than $220 million.
Yesterday's purchase brings A&B's income property holdings to 26 commercial properties in Hawai'i and 17 on the Mainland, comprising more than 4.6 million square feet of leasable space.
The acquisition comes a month after A&B lost its attempt to buy Kaka'ako retail center operator Victoria Ward Ltd. to a last-minute $250 million bid by Ala Moana Center owner General Growth Properties.
A&B's president and chief executive officer, Allen Doane, said at the time that the escalating price of the Victoria Ward property brought it to a point where A&B no long felt it would be a good investment. Doane said the company has a capital spending plan this year of $120 million, $80 million of which is earmarked for real-estate activity. More than half of the $80 million is for acquisitions, Doane said.
Norbert Buelsing, executive vice president of A&B Properties, said yesterday that he could not comment on other acquisitions plans.
"Certainly we're always looking for good opportunities," he said. "At this time we don't have anything identified or near to close, and even if we did we wouldn't be able to disclose it.
"... You can't predict as to what types of opportunities will be available to you or their size, so you set some general goals and work within those goals, and each one is evaluated very carefully to determine the suitability and viability of the investment."
Buelsing said the Marina Shores complex is "an excellent neighborhood shopping center, possessing a number of strong attributes, including a superior location, excellent visibility and high levels of traffic from nearby upscale oceanside and marina communities."
The center's three buildings have 67,727 square feet of gross leasable area on 6.7 fee-simple acres. The complex was completed in the past year and is fully occupied, A&B said.
The purchase represents a reinvestment of about $25 million to $30 million in proceeds from A&B's February sale of a 842,000-square-foot warehouse complex in Dallas to real-estate investment trust ProLogis Trust.
Reach Susan Hooper at 525-8064 or shooper@honoluluadvertiser.com.
