Source: Pacific Business News

CoastWood Capital Group, the California-based capital partner for the International Market Place redevelopment project in Waikiki may be a part of another redevelopment project on the site of the Waikiki Trade Center, perhaps a new hotel.

CoastWood Capital Group recently purchased the retail and office tower at the corner of Kuhio and Seaside avenues for an undisclosed price, Matt Bittick, president of Bishop Street Commercial, which handles office leasing for the center, told PBN.

“They’re toying with the idea of [a] hotel,” he said.

Bittick also said that his Honolulu-based firm is being retained by CoastWood Capital Group.

Coastwood Capital Group President Cordell Lietz said there were “no immediate changes planned for the property.”

“The acquisition of Waikiki Trade Center is an exciting opportunity for Coastwood Capital Group, LLC to continue to play a role in the renaissance of Waikiki,” Lietz said in a statement emailed to PBN. “We are currently refining our business plan for the asset as we strive to find the highest and best use for the property and the market, as we do with all of our investments.”

Meantime, CBRE Hawaii, which is managing the center and handling the leasing of the retail side of the building, also is being retained, the Honolulu-based firm told PBN.

The purchase of the 22-story, 248,000-square-foot building comes less than a year after another California-based investment firm bought it.

The seller, Commercial Realty Consultants Inc., which formed Seaside Equity LLC, to manage ownership of the leasehold center at 2255 Kuhio Avenue, did not immediately return messages lefty by PBN.

CoastWood Capital has partnered with landowner Queen Emma Land Co. and developer Taubman Centers Inc., to turn the existing International Market Place into a retail, dining and entertainment center that spans 360,000 square feet.

The redevelopment is expected to be completed in the spring of 2016.

Other redevelopment possibilities for the Waikiki Trade Center property include residential apartments, vertical retail or student housing, sources said.

The Waikiki Trade Center, which has four levels of parking and ground-level retail tenants who include Starbucks and Jamba Juice, was sold to Commercial Realty Consultants for about $8 million last year.

The investment firm said on its website that it has financed the building for $25.1 million.

The previous owner, Natixis Real Estate Capital Inc., took control of the center through foreclosure in 2010.

The New York-based firm filed a foreclosure lawsuit a couple of years before that, alleging that a previous owner, Waikiki Trade Center Investors, an affiliate of California-based 3D Investments, had defaulted on a $25 million loan.

The property is currently valued at about $27.6 million, with the building alone valued at $24.6 million, according to property tax records.