Post #446229 by christiki295 on Fri, Apr 10, 2009 4:00 PM

Is the Hawaiiana Hotel still in existence?

I know it was up for sale:

Friday, September 14, 2007
Hawaiiana Hotel parcel up for sale
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Janis L. Magin Pacific Business News

The owner of a fee-simple piece of land under part of a small, budget hotel in Waikiki has put the lot up for sale, which puts into play another piece of real estate in an area that has been undergoing extensive redevelopment.

The 11,956-square-foot parcel beneath the Hawaiiana Hotel is on Saratoga Road, and holds two of the hotel's five buildings and a swimming pool. The asking price is $3.65 million.

It's in the middle of a block bounded by Kalakaua Avenue, Beach Walk, Kalia Road and Saratoga Road that is home to a shrinking number of budget hotels surrounded by redevelopment.

Trump International Hotel & Tower lies at the Kalia Road end, and the 2113 Kalakaua retail project is planned for the other end of the block. The parcels on the block are owned by 12 different entities.

It's also adjacent to land earmarked for First Round Pacific's two-story retail complex that will include the Hard Rock Cafe and little more than a block away from Outrigger Enterprises' $535 million Waikiki Beach Walk, which opened earlier this year.

Paul Bonanno, a broker with Net Leased Real Properties in San Diego, represents the landowner, the Nancy S. Walter Trust.

He said the small parcel, directly across the street from Fort DeRussy Park, has great potential.

"I think absolutely at some point it's going to be redeveloped," Bonanno said. "Whether that happens before or after the lease expires is up to the current tenant, and the current tenant is Hawaiiana Hotel."

But redevelopment is unlikely to happen soon.

Hawaiiana Hotel owner Jun Kang said he has no intention in the near future of moving or redeveloping the two-story, 93-room hotel, which opened in 1955. The hotel, whose other three buildings and another pool are on a separate parcel of leased land at 260 Beach Walk, has a lease on the property until 2028.

"We're going to be trying to develop a high rise in the future, but not that high," Kang said. "I want to just keep the same Hawaiiana style."

The same goes for his next-door hotel neighbor, The Breakers, which has been there since 1954, and for another small hotel along Saratoga Road, whose owner declined to comment.

Genshitsu Sen, the former grand master of the Urasenke tradition of tea who lives in Japan, owns the land beneath The Breakers as well as several other parcels that are leased to moped and car rental agencies. Sen, 84, is happy with things the way they are, said Ethel Nada, the hotel's manager.

Bonanno said more land on that block may change hands as generations change and new projects like the Trump tower inflate the value of adjoining land.

"With the value of the land there, I don't think the current rents being paid along that strip make sense compared to the equity that's there," Bonanno said. "With our dollar being down, it's bringing a lot of Pacific Rim capital into the area."

Jay Shidler, whose Shidler Group last year bought the ANA Building at the Diamond Head corner of Kalakaua and Beach Walk, also owns a small parcel of land with a partner on Saratoga Road, as well as a leasehold building on Kalakaua.

The problem with redeveloping an area like the Hawaiiana block is that it is difficult to assemble the parcels, a process that can take years, even decades. Developers have to either buy out long-term tenants or wait for their leases to expire.