Normally, when due diligence regarding the sale of a property is concerned, it involves the buyer investigating the seller and property to make sure the buyer isn’t about to purchase a property that may turn out to be a contaminated,
Normally, when due diligence regarding the sale of a property is concerned, it involves the buyer investigating the seller and property to make sure the buyer isn’t about to purchase a property that may turn out to be a contaminated, environmental nightmare, or have other such hidden dangers.
In the case of Grove Farm Company officials and their Kukui Grove Center, though, it is the seller scrutinizing would be buyers, said Warren Haruki, Grove Farm president and chief executive officer.
Interested purchasers are being examined to make sure they fit the Grove Farm mold of “commitment to community,” and have a desire to continue to make improvements to the center, among other traits, Haruki said.
It is probably that reverse due diligence that will push a decision on whom to sell the shopping center to, assuming Grove Farm board approval, into mid-April at the earliest.
“We have had significant interest in the property,” Haruki said of Kukui Grove Center, which in this case means both Kukui Grove Center that houses anchor tenants like Macy’s, Sears, Star Markets and Longs Drug Stores, and the adjacent Kukui Marketplace, home of Kmart, Payless ShoeSource and Borders Books, Music, Movies & Cafe.
The sale of Kukui Grove Center includes fee-simple interest in both the center and Kukui Marketplace, while the holder of the leasehold interest in Kukui Marketplace, leaders of Duncan MacNaughton’s The MacNaughton Group of Honolulu, are offering also to sell their leasehold interest in Kukui Marketplace.
That offering has also drawn a fair share of interested purchasers, both local and off-island.
While the successful purchaser of the land under both Kukui Grove Center and Kukui Marketplace will be one entity, it is not yet known whether or not that single entity will also be the successful buyer of the leasehold interest in Kukui Marketplace held by The Mac-Naughton Group.
The adjacent Puakea Golf Course is not for sale, and the sale does not include the area known as Kukui Grove Village West that includes The Home Depot, the headquarters of Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative, and other entities.
Grove Farm officials have announced their intention to sell the area occupied by the Kukui Grove park and pavilion and adjacent lands to leaders at Costco, who plan to erect a warehouse store and gas station if they secure county permits necessary to do so. The sale of Kukui Grove Center and the land under Kukui Marketplace is “still (at least) two weeks away,” Haruki concluded.
