Shimogawa Scoops

A newly-opened adventure park in West Oahu is looking to add helicopter tours to its list of attractions. The Coral Crater Adventure Park in Kalaeloa already includes such activities as a full zip line, adventure tower, side-by-side ATVs, King Swing, Free fall and a climbing wall, is the first of its kind on Oahu. Coral Crater Adventure Park, which is located on Hunt Development Co. Land, recently presented plans to the Kalaeloa Public Safety Group regarding its plans to add helicopter tours to its list of activities.  The helicopter is expected to land on an existing 6,000-square-foot AstroTurf area. The adventure park, which was built in a 23-acre former Navy coral quarry owned by Hunt, is headed by James Owen, former president of Discover Hawaii Tours.

I've known Abe Lee for several years now, mainly through my coverage of the real estate market as a reporter for Pacific Business News.  To put it plainly, Abe is truly a special person, possessing that "It" characteristic that only a few in this world are so lucky to have. He makes everyone that he speaks to feel as if they are the only ones in the room. Abe also is a master motivator and communicator, getting the most out of everyone who he comes in contact with.  When I made my decision to take a deeper dive into the real estate industry, becoming one that stories are written about instead of writing stories about people in the industry, I first thought of Abe.  Besides his schools' stellar reputation, Abe himself, is the reason why so many decide to become one of his students. I'm both lucky and blessed to be called one of his students. Abe's experience in the industry as a broker, developer and investor is quite remarkable, and gives him the edge wh

Opal Thai, which has gained quite a following at its North Shore of Oahu restaurant in Haleiwa, is expanding to Honolulu with a new location in Chinatown. The Thai eatery is opening in the former Scratch Kitchen & Bake Shop restaurant space on Smith Street. In 2011, Opal Thai opened a brick-and-mortar location after operating out of a food truck for several years. The restaurant at the Haleiwa Town Center is owned by a husband-and-wife duo. Its Chinatown restaurant, which is expected to be met with much enthusiasm by the growing restaurant and bar scene in the area, is its second eatery in Hawaii. Opal Thai gained fame when it was featured on the show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." Scratch Kitchen recently sold its Chinatown location and closed down. It is now focusing on its other restaurant at Ward Village in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako called Scratch Kitchen & Meatery.  Honolulu-based Hawaii Commercial Real Estate was part of this transaction.

The partners of a Honolulu commercial real estate company have sold its property along Kalakaua Avenue near Waikiki to another real estate investor for about $6.2 million. Located at 1694 Kalakaua Ave., the 4,511-square-foot building occupies a 12,932-square-foot lot and includes a few tenants including a sandwich shop and a Korean restaurant. The purchase comes out to nearly $480 per square foot for the property, keeping properties in or near Waikiki at a premium. SC King LLC includes companies headed by Standard Commercial LLC partners Linda Gee, Matt Raff and Ian Clagstone. SC King purchased the property that's near the Hawaii Convention Center a little more than a year ago for about $4.4 million, turning a nearly $2 million profit in just a year. Jay Zhu, a real estate agent with Honolulu-based Z Properties LLC, is the buyer of the property. He formed Blue Bay Properties LLC for the purchase. A Japanese conglomerate recently purchased a half-acre parcel nearby for

James Campbell Co. LLC has purchased the leasehold interest in the Kmart store property in Kapolei, which is the last remaining Kmart store on Oahu. The store, which is located at 500 Kamokila Blvd., is scheduled to close next month. James Campbell paid about $4.5 million for the leasehold interest in the store's property, utilizing a 1031 Exchange for the purchase. The exchange, which has become increasingly popular these days, allows an investor to sell a property to reinvest the funding in a new property and to defer all capital gain taxes. It's not immediately known which property James Campbell sold to make this exchange possible. The Kmart store property spans 129,418-square-feet of building space on roughly 10 acres of land. Kmart's parent Sears Holding Co. has been closing both Sears and Kmart stores throughout the country including those in Hawaii. There only two stores in the state that's not scheduled to close just yet, one on Kauai and the other on th

The iconic building in Honolulu's Chinatown that bears the name of the chief villain in the CBS crime drama television series "Hawaii Five-0" has been sold for nearly $4 million. Located at 111 Hotel St., the 16,500-square-foot "Wo Fat Building" was purchased by a Delaware company headed by John Davenport, who lists an Austin, Texas address. The iconic Wo Fat Building, which stands out in Chinatown with its unique architecture, is the company's latest addition to its portfolio. 

American Soul, a Florida-based high-end clothing retailer, is expanding to Hawaii with its first store opening at the Macy's-anchored Ka Makana Alii shopping center in Kapolei in West Oahu. American Soul filed a building permit last week with Honolulu regulators for a new store at the Kapolei mall, which is owned by Florida-based DeBartolo Development. The retailer will join other tenants at the new mall such as Aerie, American Eagle Outfitters, Famous Footwear, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Foot Locker and H&M.  West Oahu is gaining quite a bit of new retailers and restaurants with the expansion and new openings at not only Ka Makana Alii but the nearby Kapolei Commons shopping center that's owned by The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group.

A new Japanese restaurant is opening in a newly-renovated building on South King Street in Honolulu. Akira Japanese Restaurant recently filed a building permit with Honolulu regulators for its new eatery at 1150 S. King St., which is known as the Eleven50 Building. This building, which was recently purchased by Honolulu businessman Duane Kurisu, includes mostly medical office tenants, including a medical marijuana company. There's an Akira Japanese Restaurant in San Francisco, although it's not known if these two restaurants are connected to one another. Earlier this year, Akira Japanese Restaurant LLC was registered as a new business in Hawaii with Taiki Kawai as one of its managers. Kawai, an executive chef, has worked at Sushi Izakaya Shinn restaurant in Honolulu. Akira Japanese Restaurant joins a crowded field of new restaurants in Honolulu, especially in Chinatown and in Waikiki.

A Japanese college's vacant high-rise tower along Kapiolani Boulevard in Honolulu that has been on the market for several years has been sold for $35 million. The Hawaii Tokai International College, which moved its campus to Kapolei in West Oahu, sold its Honolulu building that overlooks Waikiki to a joint venture involving California real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson and former Hawaii hotel executive Ben Rafter. The sale of the 172,000-square-foot building at 2241 Kapiolani Blvd. closed on Monday.  It originally had an asking price of $42 million. The property has a total assessed value of about $37 million. Several investors looked at buying the Tokai property, including those from China and here locally.  It's not clear as to what the new owners plan to do with the building that occupies a roughly 35,000-square-foot lot.  Current zoning doesn't allow for a hotel on the property, but other options could include re-opening it for educational uses an

A burger and burrito eatery that made its name at farmer's markets and other events on Oahu, has recently opened its first brick-and-mortar space on Kapahulu Avenue in Honolulu. This week, Beyond Burgers Hawaii LLC quietly opened Burgers & Burritos Hawaii inside a space at 760 Kapahulu Ave. Beyond Burgers, headed by Jonathan Hedrick, plans to hold a grand opening for its new digs sometime next month. Beyond Burgers serves Big Island grassfed beef and other local products, as well as burritos and tacos. One of its signature dishes is its all-beef bacon-wrapped hot dogs.

The iconic Father Damien Statue at the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu is set to undergo a renovation. The state Department of Accounting and General Services’ Public Works Division Office has released a request for proposals for the project, which has an estimated construction cost between $250,000 and $500,000. The work will generally consist of the removal and off-site storage of the statue. The existing bases of it will be demolished and new solid granite bases will be installed. The statue will then be reinstalled at its current place at the entrance of the Capitol. The statue, also known as the Saint Damien of Molokai Statue, pays tribute to the legendary Hawaii Catholic Church priest from Belgium who sacrificed his life for the lepers of Molokai. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 and is considered as a hero in Hawaii. There’s also another bronze statue of Saint Damien at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.  

A Japanese conglomerate has purchased a half-acre parcel of land near the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu for 8.3 million. Kinoshita Real Estate LLC, a subsidiary of Tokyo's Kinoshita Group, which has companies in such industries as film and music production, cosmetics and broadcasting, closed on its purchase of the Hawaii property in June. The property, which is located on Kalakaua Avenue, could be developed into a high-rise condominium tower. The seller was 1700 Kalakaua LLC, which is headed by Mark Borneleit, who purchased the 22,664-square-foot parcel in 2016 from a Japanese company for $7 million. Soon after that purchase, he put the land up for sale with an asking price of $8.6 million. Located at 1617 Fern St., the vacant lot is at the corner of Kalakaua Avenue and Fern Street. The sale includes highly coveted sewer credits that total more than $1 million. In the past, there were plans to build a high-rise mixed-use project on this parcel.  The Kinoshita Group

 Ross Dress for Less is opening a new store at Windward Mall in Kaneohe. The discount retailer filed a $2.5 million building permit with Honolulu regulators on Thursday for its new store at the largest shopping mall on the Windward side of the island. Ross, which recently opened a new store in the Honolulu neighborhood of Iwilei as part of a project involving Longs Drugs and PetSmart, already has a store in Kaneohe at the Windward City Shopping Center. It’s unclear as to whether this would be a second store for Ross in Kaneohe or if the retailer is moving to Windward Mall. The permit lists space “P02” as the location Ross will be opening at Windward Mall. The Sports Authority space is still vacant, although this may be where Ross is moving to. Ross, which also recently opened a new store at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, has 16 stores in the Islands with another opening in October in Kihei on Maui.