A major real estate deal in Windward Oahu could have ramifications for Downtown Honolulu. We get more on that story from Pacific Business News Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier.
This week PBN learned that Castle Medical Center will acquire the Hawaii Loa campus of Hawaii Pacific University. Financial terms have not been disclosed and the deal is not entirely complete. Both parties now enter months of additional due diligence. But it could mean big changes for both institutions in the not too distant future.
According to Castle Medical Center’s owner, Adventist Health, HPU will continue to occupy the Kaneohe campus for several years while the hospital finalizes its own expansion plan. At some point, Castle will use the Hawaii Loa property to extend its presence in windward Oahu. It is already, as we note in this week’s Windward Oahu cover story, the largest employer on the Windward side with 1,000 employees.
At that point, expect to see ripples in the downtown commercial real estate market as HPU absorbs the Hawaii Loa based functions in town. HPU has already made big moves downtown. In 2013, it purchased the Aloha Tower Marketplace and spent $30 million converting upstairs retail spaces into dorms and classrooms. HPU does still have offices in spaces along Fort Street. Depending on what it moves, and when, we may see any number of businesses trading spaces in the downtown market. Commercial real estate experts PBN spoke to expect to see net positive absorption – meaning, more space being leased overall.
