California investors have bought the Kauai Village shopping center in Kapa'a, and plan a major renovation of the 110,000-square-foot complex that is anchored by Safeway and Longs Drugs.

A group of investors led by Diversified Equity Investment Corp. is buying the center for about $35 million, according to the buyers' broker, Faris Lee Investments.

The broker notes that the investors plan to spend roughly another $5 million on improvements,

The seller was a group of investors organized through California-based real estate investment firm PASSCO, which paid about $27 million for the center in July 2004.

Faris Lee said the new owners' vision is to transform Kauai Village — which was built in 1990 and includes landscaped ponds and streams, small walking bridges and Wyland whale murals — into a resort-style shopping center.

The center is about 85 percent occupied.