Posted on: Saturday, March 26, 2005

65 condo owners now own land, too

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Castle & Cooke Realty Inc. has sold a chunk of fee-simple property to condominium owners at the company's only leasehold home project, Mililani Terrace.

Sixty-five leasehold owners of the townhouse-style subdivision built in the late 1980s purchased the fee interest in their property as part of a bulk offering by the subsidiary of major Hawai'i home developer Castle & Cooke Hawaii.

The sale followed piecemeal voluntary fee sales under 115 Mililani Terrace condominium units during the mid- to late-1990s that represented a little more than half of the 224-unit subdivision. But as of last year, 109 leasehold condos remained.

Mark-Allen DeCastro, Castle & Cooke Realty principal broker, said the company tried to encourage more leasehold-to-fee-simple conversions by offering a discounted price if a majority of the remaining leasehold condo owners decided to buy their fee.

"As the economy strengthened, Castle & Cooke wanted to give the leasehold owners an opportunity to own the fee at a reasonable price," he said.

Prices were $15,000 for 1-bedroom units and $20,500 for 2-bedroom units. DeCastro said lease rent is between $30 and $70 a month.

Earlier this year, the Honolulu City Council and Mayor Mufi Hannemann repealed the city's controversial condominium leasehold conversion law that had allowed groups of leasehold condo owners to force landowners to sell the fee interest under their condos since 1991.

Castle & Cooke, the master developer of Mililani, developed Mililani Terrace as an affordable-housing project restricted to buyers based on income level. The project was sold on a leasehold basis to make prices more affordable than similar fee-simple condos in the market.

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