Posted on: Tuesday, December 7, 2004
1132 Bishop sold for $115M
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Los Angeles real estate investment firm and local developer Dick Gushman have purchased downtown Honolulu's largest single office tower, 1132 Bishop, for about $115 million.
Advertiser library photo • 1996 The seller was an affiliate of Australia-based Lend Lease Corp., which last year sold its U.S. real estate investment divisions that did not include 1132 Bishop.
Gushman said the new owners do not plan changes to the building's operation, and will retain managing agent Colliers Monroe Friedlander and leasing agent Hawaii Commercial Real Estate LLC. "We'll continue to operate it as it has been operated historically," he said.
Built near the end of Hawai'i's last real estate investment bubble, 1132 opened in May 1992 as Pan Pacific Plaza and was later renamed First Hawaiian Tower when the bank leased six floors while building a new headquarters at King and Bishop streets.
In 1993, Bishop Street Associates, led by Los Angeles-based developer Irwin Daniels, filed for bankruptcy to hold off foreclosure after defaulting on the project's roughly $110 million loan with Fuji Bank of Japan.
Fuji and other creditors assumed ownership of the building in 1996, and sold it for $73 million to Lend Lease in 1998.
The building has been touted as one of the most technologically equipped, but its occupancy was hurt by the bursting of the dot.com bubble in 2001. Tenants such as online translation firm WorldPoint and the network operations center of Cable & Wireless vacated the building.
Under Lend Lease, occupancy has risen from about 60 percent to 80 percent. Major tenants include U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Territorial Savings, Deloitte & Touche LLP and Atlas Insurance.
Douglas Emmett Realty owns roughly $3 billion of real estate, primarily office and luxury apartment buildings mostly in Los Angeles.
In Hawai'i, the company competed unsuccessfully to buy the the Damon Estate's largely industrial real estate portfolio on O'ahu, and has looked at other property.
Gushman, often with partners, has developed more than $1 billion of real estate over the past 25 years, including Waikele Center, an outlet mall in Guam and residential, office and industrial projects.
Reach Andrew Gomes at 525-8065 or agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.
The 24-story building set back from the 'ewa-mauka corner of Bishop and Hotel streets is the second Hawai'i property purchase by Gushman and Douglas Emmett Realty Advisors, which partnered to buy the leasehold interest in Harbor Court commercial units in August.
Developer David Gushman and Los Angeles-based Douglas Emmett Realty Advisors have purchased 1132 Bishop.
But the developer of 1132, Bishop Street Associates, struggled to fill the tower's 476,000 square feet of space as the state's economy entered an economic slump.
