Shimogawa Scoops

Ledcor Group, a diversified construction company with corporate offices in Canada and in San Diego has been revealed as the surprise buyer of former Men’s Warehouse CEO George Zimmer’s Big Island of Hawaii estate, Shimogawa Scoops has confirmed. Ledcor Group purchased the 8-acre oceanfront estate for just a shade under $18 million, public records show. The property is located on the northwestern side of the Big Island. The property had been on the market for several years but became expendable after Zimmer purchased legendary musician Neil Young’s nearby property. Ledcor, which was founded almost seven decades ago in Canada, has offices scattered throughout Canada and the U.S. including an office in Hawaii, according to its website.

The Marukai Wholesale Mart in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kalihi is expanding by more than 20,000-square-feet of space. The popular Japanese store, which sells groceries and other items, is the only one of its kind in Hawaii after its other store recently closed at Ward Village in Kakaako. Located along Kamehameha Highway, the store’s owner is requesting its 22,515-square-foot expansion through the Honolulu Liquor Commission. The store may expand its mauka side footprint. The expansion makes plenty of sense considering how busy it already is and the fact that it is now its lone location in the Islands.

The Sake Shop is opening a new location in the growing Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako. The popular sake shop, which sells many items not found in other stores, closed its original location on King Street in Moiliili. The Sake Shop joins the Kakaako Wine & Sake Shop in the popular neighborhood that’s sandwiched between downtown and Waikiki.  Its new location is near Logos Bookstore and Cooke Street Diner. The move to the area is a smart one considering the massive growth of the area with hundreds of new residents moving into several new high-rise condominiums being built or already built in the neighborhood.

A former executive for Pepsi, eBay and Burger King has purchased a 23,775-square-foot parcel of land in the resort community of Makena on South Maui for $11.5 million, Shimogawa Scoops has learned. Public records show Brian Swette, through a family trust, purchased the parcel of land that’s located on Makena Road near the area’s golf course. The purchase comes out to $483.70 per square foot of land. Swette, who along with his wife, a former Calvin Klein executive, now own a prominent organic food business called Sweet Earth Natural Foods, which sells its items in Whole Foods Markets and Target stores across the country.

Billionaire Bennett Dorrance, the heir to the Campbell Soup Co. fortune has purchased a nearly 38,000-square-foot estate in the ultra-exclusive Big Island of Hawaii’s Kukio master-planned community for a whopping $27.5 million, Shimogawa Scoops has learned. The property includes a 7,343-square-foot, five-bedroom, six-bedroom mansion in what is known by some as “Billionaire’s Getaway” in Hawaii that’s located on island’s Kona coast. The purchase comes out to Dorrance paying $725.65 per square foot for the land. Dorrance, who is familiar with Hawaii as the founding partner of Arizona-based DMB Associates, which developed Kauai’s ultra-exclusive Kukuiula master-planned community on the island’s South Shore, owns a 15 percent stake in Campbell Soup. His grandfather invented the company’s well-known condensed soup formula. The younger Dorrance has an estimated net worth of about $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. Others owning a piece of real estate at Kukio include billionaire M...

The Canadian owner of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the largest media organization in Hawaii, is looking to sell the the property that houses the paper’s printing press and distribution center in Kapolei in West Oahu. CBRE has the listing, which was just released:  http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1102006692645&ca=94d8b401-76bd-45df-b900-169eb9b4bfe9 Oahu Publications, owned by Canadian publisher David Black, purchased the property in 2010 for $32.9 million as part of an acquisition of Gannett’s Honolulu Advertiser by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

The TV home of “Magnum P.I.” was demolished last weekend in Windward Oahu. Here’s a photo shared with select media members of the demolished home in Waimanalo that was recently purchased by former President Barack Obama’s good friend, Marty Nesbitt. This is happening all the while shooting for a reboot of the popular show in Hawaii has been making headlines.

Longs Drugs, the largest drugstore chain in Hawaii, may be opening another store in Kapolei in West Oahu, according to public records. Longs Drugs filed a sewer connection application Tuesday with Honolulu regulators for a possible new location in the area. The CVS Health-owned chain currently has one store in the area at the Kapolei Marketplace and a pharmacy at the Kapolei Commons shopping center. Longs Drugs, which has a little more than 20 stores in Honolulu alone, also has many other stores sprinkled across the state.

 Mexico Cantina has closed its Ward Village restaurant in Honolulu after being open for about four years. The owners, who also head popular Mexican eateries in Kailua in Windward Oahu and in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kalihi, abruptly shut down its Kakaako location on the second floor of Ward Centre. It’s not known yet what’s replacing Mexico Cantina at this location. Three other Mexican eateries — Grand Leyenda Cantina, Pablo’s Cantina and Compadres Bar & Grill — have previously occupied this 5,360-square-foot space. Texas-based The Howard Hughes Corp. owns Ward Village.