Queen's Court site sold

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Queen's Court, an architecturally distinct low-rise, has been sold after sitting empty for nine years. It is the last part of the Harbor Court development to be occupied. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

After sitting empty for nine years, the architecturally distinct low-rise at 800 Bethel St. is the last part of the initially troubled Harbor Court development to be occupied.

Richard Weiser, a South Carolina businessman who has developed real estate in Hawai'i, and Richard Emery, president of the local real estate management firm Hawaii First Inc., paid $3.6 million for the property, including 60 parking stalls next door at Harbor Court.

The six-story leasehold building sits on city land. It was built in 1994 with Harbor Court but never occupied. It had been on the market for years, and most recently was listed for $5 million by broker CB Richard Ellis Hawaii Inc.

Emery said he has deals with architectural, building and insurance firms in escrow to buy about 80 percent of the space in the lower five floors. The resales are expected to close later this month and next month.

Selling the 45,089-square-foot building was AHI Harbor LP, a partnership led by Trinity Investment Trust LLP that acquired the mortgage on the $185 million Harbor/Queen's Court project in 1996.

Conceived at the height of the speculative Japanese investment bubble in the late 1980s, the Harbor Court project struggled early on with high vacancies, and developer Harbor Court Developers lost ownership of the buildings to AHI Harbor.

Last year, AHI Harbor bought the fee simple interest in Harbor Court from the City & County of Honolulu for $12 million. The city still retains the fee in Queen's Court. Weiser said he and Emery are interested in buying the fee, but have had no discussions with the city yet. Annual lease rent is about $270,000.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.