Shimogawa Scoops

A fast-food restaurant chain based in the Netherlands is expanding to Hawaii with a new location at the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki. Wok to Walk, which features wok stir-fried Asian cuisine, filed a $300,000 building permit with Honolulu regulators on Thursday for a new restaurant at the Royal Hawaiian Center. Honolulu architect Takao Ugai of Focus Labo LLC is listed as the architect for the project. Founded in 2004, Wok to Walk, whose food is served in oyster pails, has locations all over the world, including in such cities as London, Berlin, Madrid, New York City and Lisbon. The Amsterdam-based restaurant joins other restaurants at the Royal Hawaiian Center such as The Cheesecake Factory, Doraku Sushi, Ezogiku and Noi Thai Cuisine.

The California company planning to build a big wind energy farm on Oahu's North Shore filed building permits on Wednesday, signaling that the long-delayed project is finally moving forward. Na Pua Makani Power Partners, headed by California's Champlin, filed a $3.1 million permit with Honolulu regulators to build four wind turbines and a meteorological evaluation tower. Hawaii Engineering Group is a consultant on the project. Another permit filed Wednesday was for the development of a maintenance and operation building. The 25-megawatt wind farm, which is being built in Kahuku, joins two other wind projects on the North Shore.

A California real estate investment firm has purchased a shopping center on the Big Island of Hawaii for about $13.6 million. The nearly three-acre Coconut Grove Marketplace in Kailua-Kona, which includes nearly 30,000-square-feet of building space, is home to such tenants as Outback Steakhouse, Bongo Ben's Island Café and Humpy's Ale House. The seller of the shopping center on Alii Nui Drive was Texas-based Lone Star Funds. The shopping center has a total assessed value of about $6.9 million, public records show. The sale comes out to a purchase of $104 per square foot.

Dunkin' Donuts is opening a new shop inside at food court facility at the University of Hawaii Manoa campus in Honolulu. The East Coast donut and coffee giant filed a $50,000 building permit with Honolulu regulators on Thursday for its new shop at the Paradise Palms Cafe at UH Manoa. Aloha Petroleum is the exclusive franchisee for Dunkin' Donuts in Hawaii, which recently re-entered the Hawaii market with a location near the Honolulu International Airport. Several other donut shops are planned for the Islands. Paradise Palms is managed by UHM Food Services, and is located on the upper campus next to Hamilton Library and Kennedy Theater. It currently includes more than five food vendors, an air-conditioned dining room and an outdoor seating area.  Founded in Massachusetts in 1950, the company has grown to become one of the largest of its kind in the world with over 12,000 locations in more than 35 countries. Dunkin' reported revenues of $829 million in 2016. Its par

Castle & Cooke plans to start construction on its 3,500-home Koa Ridge project in Central Oahu by the end of the year. The 576-acre project in Waipio near the Costco Wholesale store is expected to deliver its first homes and commercial spaces in 2019.  Last month, a consultant for the developer gave a brief update to the Pearl City Neighborhood Board, noting that road improvements are expected to be done prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy for any development within the long-planned project. Koa Ridge is expected to include a mix of housing types as well as retail and restaurant spaces, among other things. Towards the west in the Ewa plain, another major housing project — D.R. Horton Hawaii's 11,750-home Hoopili project has recently started construction. Despite these projects, and the condominium towers being built in Honolulu, the island of Oahu continues to be plagued by the lack of housing inventory, which has driven prices higher than they have e

The Denver company that recently purchased Hawaii-based Outrigger Hotels and Resorts' portfolio of 37 properties has acquired another Hawaii hotel — the 311-room Courtyard Kaua'i at Coconut Beach on the eastside of the Garden Isle. The sale of the hotel, which was traded for $61.6 million, or $198,070 per room, closed last month. The 169,787-square-foot hotel occupies nearly 11 acres of land along Waipouli Beach, and has a total assessed value of $37.7 million. The seller — Kauai Coconut Beach LLC — purchased the hotel for $38 million in 2010. KSL Capital, which focuses on investing in travel and leisure businesses, has raised more than $7.5 billion in private equity and credit funds since 2005. Its investment portfolio includes such businesses as hotels and resorts, clubs, fitness, family entertainment, skiing and resort real estate.

A California-based developer that has three residential projects in the works on Oahu, including two in Honolulu, may be looking to develop another such project in Downtown Honolulu. Franco Mola's Coastal Rim Properties, which is the developer behind the planned 803 Waimanu Street and 929 Pumehana Street projects in Honolulu, as well as another project in Kapolei, filed a sewer connection application Tuesday to check sewer capacity on a Downtown Honolulu surface parking lot that went on the market earlier this year. The 12,842-square-foot lot at the corner of Alakea and Beretania streets, owned by Chicago's Next Realty, is currently being used as a nearly 40-stall parking lot. The possible development scenarios for the parcel include building a residential, hotel, office, retail or parking garage. Coastal Rim's permit includes a job description for "MCXCII Tower" for applicant "Alakea Affordable Housing," a company formed by Coastal Rim. The BMX-