General Growth sells stake in Hawaii’s Ala Moana Center to Australian firm for $907M

March 27, 2015 By
General Growth Properties has sold a 25 percent stake in Hawaii's Ala Moana Center to an Australian firm for $907 million.

General Growth Properties has sold a 25 percent stake in Hawaii’s Ala Moana Center to an Australian firm for $907 million.

Ala Moana Center, the largest shopping mall in Hawaii, has a new owner, as Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., said Monday that it has sold a 25 percent stake in the Honolulu mall to AustralianSuper for about $907 million.

Chicago-based General Growth (NYSE: GGP) also said that it may sell an additional 12.5 equity interest in Ala Moana Center within the next 60 days to fund a pending acquisition.

Under the terms of the deal, General Growth, which owned a 100 percent stake in Ala Moana Center, will now own a 75 percent equity interest in the mall.

Kevin Berry, spokesman for GGP, told PBN that there will be no changes in the day-to-day operations of the mall.

The transaction values the 2.2-million-square-feet Ala Moana Center at about $5.5 billion, the two companies said.

GGP received about $670 million when the deal closed on Friday, with the remaining $237 million being paid in late 2016 after the mall’s Ewa wing redevelopment is completed.

The Chicago real estate investment trust said that it expects to use the funding to repay about $670 million of debt within the next two months.

In January, GGP said it has spent $391.5 million so far on its redevelopment of a former Sears space at Ala Moana Center, which will add more than 340,000 square feet of new retail space.

It also noted in its 2014 earnings report that the $573.2 million project is expected to be finished by the fourth quarter of this year.

Ala Moana Center ranks as one of the top malls in the country when it comes to sales per square foot, tallying $1,360 per square foot annually, which is good for ninth in the United States.

Its more than 290 tenants, occupying 2.1 million square feet, take in a combined total of about $2.86 billion each year.

AustralianSuper is its country’s largest industry super fund, with more than 2 million members and more than $84 billion in Australian funds under management.

PBN reached out to AustralianSuper for comment.

Last week, WP Glimcher, the Ohio-based owner of Pearlridge Center, the state’s second largest shopping mall, sold about half of its interest to an affiliate of New York’s O’Connor Capital Partners for $1.625 billion.

Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

Filed Under: Featured, General Growth Properties, General Information Tagged With: ,

Ala Moana Center parking levels to be completed in late 2015

April 19, 2014 By
This rendering shows the six ultra-luxury condominium buildings planned for a portion of Ala Moana Center. The project will have a total of 215 units, according to a building permit filed with the City and County of Honolulu.

This rendering shows the six ultra-luxury condominium buildings planned for a portion of Ala Moana Center. The project will have a total of 215 units, according to a building permit filed with the City and County of Honolulu.

Ala Moana Center parking levels to be completed in late 2015

Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

Ala Moana Center’s retail parking levels, which are currently being reconstructed as part of the Honolulu mall’s $573 million redevelopment of a former Sears space, should be completed by November 2015, coinciding with the opening of the Ewa wing’s retail expansion, according to a senior director of development for mall owner General Growth Properties.

Francisco Gutierrez of Chicago-based General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP) recently gave an update to the Ala Moana/Kakaako Neighborhood Board regarding the state’s largest mall’s renovations and expansion.

He noted that the planned condominium project on the makai side of the center from Piikoi Street to Neiman Marcus would be about 100 feet tall, which is under the current height limit, and would not require special permits.

Construction on the $300 million, 215-unit “Park Lane Ala Moana” project, which is being developed by The MacNaughton Group, Kobayashi Group, BlackSand Capital and landowner General Growth, is expected to begin mid-2014 and completed by late 2016.

The project, which has an address of 1488 Ala Moana Blvd., includes multiple low-rise towers atop the mall’s parking deck, was first reported by PBN.

Filed Under: Ala Moana, Ala Moana Luxury Row, Featured, General Growth Properties, Park Lane Ala Moana Tagged With: , ,

Ultra-luxury project at Ala Moana Center to include 215 condo units

February 8, 2014 By

Feb 5, 2014, 2:55pm HST
Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

This rendering shows the six ultra-luxury condominium buildings planned for a portion of Ala Moana Center. The project will have a total of 215 units, according to a building permit filed with the City and County of Honolulu.

This rendering shows the six ultra-luxury condominium buildings planned for a portion of Ala Moana Center. The project will have a total of 215 units, according to a building permit filed with the City and County of Honolulu.

The planned seven ultra-luxury condominium towers to be built on what is now a parking area of Ala Moana Center fronting Ala Moana Boulevard will include 215 units with 109 two-bedroom units, 65 three-bedroom units, 36 one-bedroom units and five five-bedroom penthouses, according to a permit filed recently with the City and County of Honolulu.

The application for the “Low Rise Residential” project includes no other details, except that the estimated sewer connection date is set for Dec. 31.

PBN first reported on the project, which is being developed by Honolulu developers The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group as well as the Hawaii-based investment firm BlackSand Capital and mall owner General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP).

The eight-story buildings, which will be 100 feet tall, range in size from 850-square-foot units to 6,000-square-foot units and will have 2.5 floors of commercial parking.

No price ranges for the units were given for the project, which will be built adjacent to the Bloomingdale’s store under construction at Ala Moana Center. It is scheduled to start in mid-2014, with a completion date in 2016.

Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN) is also moving its Ala Moana store to that end of the mall, along Piikoi Street, and a Whole Foods Market (NYSE: WFM) is being planned for the ground floor of that store.

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$2M -_$3M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$3M -_$4M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$4M -_$5M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$5M -_$6M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$6M -_$8M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$8M – 10M

Luxury_Oahu_Honolulu_Condos

Filed Under: Ala Moana, Ala Moana Luxury Row, Featured Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ala Moana Center luxury condo project to create 300-plus jobs

December 21, 2013 By

Dec 16, 2013, 2:52pm HST UPDATED: Dec 16, 2013, 3:17pm HST
Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

 

This diagram over an aerial photograph of Ala Moana Center provided by developers The MacNaughton Group, Kobayashi Group and BlackSand Capital shows where a group of ultra-luxury condominiums, as well as a new Bloomingdale's store, will be built.

This diagram over an aerial photograph of Ala Moana Center provided by developers The MacNaughton Group, Kobayashi Group and BlackSand Capital shows where a group of ultra-luxury condominiums, as well as a new Bloomingdale’s store, will be built.

The Hawaii developers who are planning to build seven ultra-luxury condominium towers with some 200 units on what is now a parking area of Ala Moana Center, said the project is expected to create more than 300 construction jobs.

The eight-story buildings, which will be 100 feet tall and include everything from 850-square-foot one-bedroom units up to 6,000-square-foot five-bedroom penthouses, could cost in the tens of millions of dollars range for a unit, according to sources. A spokeswoman for the project told PBN that prices have not been set yet.

The buildings are slated to have 2.5 floors of commercial parking.

The developers, The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group, along with Honolulu-based investment firm BlackSand Capital and mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP), declined to give out a price range.

“The project is still in design, however we are setting a new global standard for luxury residential living in Hawaii, and we will target clientele seeking this type of extraordinary home,” a spokeswoman for the project told PBN.

Thus far, the developers have chosen Honolulu’s Ben Woo Architects as architect of record, Chicago-based Solomon Cordwell Buenz to also handle design, Honolulu-based Philpotts Interiors and San Francisco-based Orlando Diaz-Azcuy Design Associates to do the interior designs and Calfornia-based Vita Planning & Landscape Architecture to handle the landscape designs.

No general contractor has been chosen yet.

“We will be working with all the appropriate agencies to determine and fulfill all the requirements during the entitlement process,” the spokeswoman said. “No [environmental impact statement] is required.”
Construction on the project, which will be built adjacent to the Bloomingdale’s store under construction at Ala Moana Center, is scheduled to start in mid-2014, with a completion date in 2016.

Filed Under: Featured, Kobayashi Group The, MacNaughton Group The, Park Lane Ala Moana Tagged With: , , ,