Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News
So who’s buying in Kakaako? The answer surrounding one of the most burning questions regarding Oahu’s so called “Third City,” at least in one condominium, is mostly locals.
Chris Benjamin, president and chief operating officer of Alexander & Baldwin (NYSE: ALEX), one of Hawaii’s largest private landowners, says that 80 percent of the buyers at its 43-story, 340-unit Waihonua at Kewalo condo, which is sold out, are locals.
“Most of them will be owner-occupants,” Benjamin told a group of Hawaii business professionals on Thursday as one of the featured speakers at a Hawaii Economic Association luncheon. “Lots of [them] will rent out their units.”
He says that 10 percent were Mainland buyers with the balance being Asian buyers.
But it’s a different story at another condo project with ties to A&B.
The 23-story, 206-unit ONE Ala Moana luxury high-rise being built atop the Nordstrom parking garage at Ala Moana Center may have a much higher percentage of Asian buyers, from the 30 percent to 50 percent range, said Lance Parker, senior vice president of acquisitions and dispositions for A&B’s subsidiary, A&B Properties Inc., who was the other featured speaker at the event, which was held at the Plaza Club in Downtown Honolulu.