"Just imagine I'm playing the theme to 'Pink Panther,'" Mimi Bornhorst tells Aloha State Daily as she unlocks the door to Hale Moani penthouse No. 4 a bit before noon on Wednesday.
It would be a fitting tune. Inside the one-bedroom, one-bath unit, everything is pink. The carpets. The walls. Even the ceilings. Mirrors that cover large parts of the walls reflect the hue and make everything seem even ... pinker. As we step into the living room, Bornhorst is even ready with a fuzzy pink boa that she drapes around my neck.
The pink bedroom. (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
The pink bathroom. (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
Ala Wai views from the lānai. (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
The pool area at Hale Moani in Waikīkī. (Aloha State Daily Staff)
The fee simple property hit the market earlier this month with a $340,000 asking price.
Dubbed Barbie's Pink Palace, the penthouse condo is "ready for its glow-up," and priced "so you can bring your design dreams to life without tearing out someone else 'nice but not your style' finishes," the listing notes.
"Bring your vision, your contractor and maybe a sledgehammer. Opportunity is knocking — and it's wearing pink."
Bornhorst, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Realty, told ASD in a follow-up email Wednesday that she spoke with the owner's son and got the story behind the pink condo, located in Hale Moani at 2115 Ala Wai Blvd.
In the late 1980s, current owner Momoe was living in California, she recounted. A friend of hers had just finished restoring a yacht and in 1989 he invited her and three other friends to sail around the world.
"Her children were grown and she was divorced, and so she set sail on a great adventure with her friends, first destination Honolulu," Bornhorst said. "The voyage was not as pleasant as she had dreamed, in fact she was seasick for most of the trip and scared, since she could not swim. When they reached Honolulu, she decided she had enough sailing and would stay in Hawai‘i."
According to Bornhorst, Momoe rented a little apartment somewhere on Kūhiō Avenue that was, coincidentally, pink, and while out one day, she met a real estate agent who told her there was a condo she'd like to show her.
The son said his mother walked in, saw the view and decided to buy it.
"She painted it pink, carpeted it in pink, added a little more pink and some mirrors, [and] had a happy life living in Waikīkī," Bornhorst recounted. "She sang, she danced, she sang karaoke and she taught art."
Momoe now lives with her son in California — and is still happy.
According to the listing, the building was constructed in 1973 and is fully insured against hurricanes. The unit itself is 649 square feet, with an 80-square-foot lānai overlooking the Ala Wai and one covered parking spot. There's also a pool on site.
Maintenance fees are $934 and taxes are $90 per month. Bornhorst says the maintenance fees include water, hot water, electricity, sewer, insurance, cable and internet.
She first saw the apartment when it was still fully furnished, "and then I saw it when it was vacant, and I was surprised at how pink it was. I didn't realize just how pink it was, but then it felt really happy, and I was just happy to be here. It just makes me happy every time I go in here."
Bornhorst says, too, that she gets positive reactions to the pink when people come into the unit.
"It's a pink fixer-upper that has a happy spirit," she told ASD.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
