Retailer Don Quijote (USA) is paying A&B Properties Inc. $45.5 million for land under its Kaheka Street store — more than twice the amount A&B paid two years ago for the four-acre site near Ala Moana Center formerly occupied by Daiei.

A&B said the transaction closed yesterday. In June, A&B announced the deal but did not disclose a price.

The sale is for more than twice the $19.3 million A&B paid in 2005 to acquire the property from CEC Hawaii Inc., which at the time leased the property to Japan-based retailer Daiei.

A&B Properties CEO Stanley Kuriyama said his firm, the real estate subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., bought the land intending to redevelop the site when Daiei's lease terminated in 2018.

But last year, Japan-based Don Quijote bought Daiei's four stores in Hawai'i, and has been operating a discount retail business similar to Daiei's, largely focused on Asian-oriented general merchandise and groceries. The Kaheka store is its flagship location in Hawai'i.

"Don Quijote's unsolicited offer allowed us to capture the property's embedded intrinsic value well ahead of our original schedule," Kuriyama said in a statement. "This transaction both allows A&B to realize the financial benefits from its investment, and Don Quijote to achieve its strategic and operating goals, on an accelerated timeline."

Steve Sombrero, an agent with ChaneyBrooks who represented Don Quijote in its purchase, said the acquisition gives the retailer the opportunity to invest additional capital in its flagship store.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.