Honolulu-based Alexander & Baldwin has been taken private in a $2.3 billion deal that closed last week.
A&B, which previously was the only publicly traded real estate investment trust focused solely on Hawai‘i commercial real estate, announced in December it had entered into a “definitive merger agreement” wherein a joint venture group formed by MW Group, a privately held Honolulu-based, commercial real estate developer, with funding from Blackstone Real Estate and DivcoWest, would acquire all outstanding A&B common shares for $21.20 per share.
The transaction closed following approval by A&B shareholders at a special meeting March 9, a March 12 announcement noted. A&B's common stock is no longer being traded on the New York Stock Exchange and it is now a private company, the announcement says.
The company said in December that following the closure of the deal, A&B would keep its name, brand and Honolulu headquarters, and continue to be led by a Hawai‘i-based team. That announcement also noted that the investor group plans to invest more than $100 million across the portfolio to “enhance the properties and reinforce their role in the communities they serve.”
According to the A&B website, the current leadership teams includes President and CEO Lance Parker; Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Clayton Chun; and six senior vice presidents. See the full team here.
A&B got its start more than 150 years ago, when childhood friends Samuel Alexander and Henry Baldwin established a sugar-growing partnership on Maui in 1870. The company was one of the “Big Five” companies that dominated Hawai‘i’s political and economic landscape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. You can find more of the company’s history here.
In recent years, though, the company pivoted its focus to Hawai‘i commercial real estate.
In November 2023, A&B sold Grace Pacific, one of the state’s largest asphalt paving contractors, materials and construction companies, to locally owned construction company Nan, Inc.
A&B had acquired the company in 2013 and its sale marked the “culmination of A&B’s simplification strategy, allowing us to sharpen our focus on our core business a s the preeminent commercial real estate company in Hawai‘i,” Parker said in a statement at the time of the sale.
Today, A&B owns and manages about 4 million square feet of commercial space in the Islands, including 21 retail centers, 14 industrial assets, four office properties and 146 acres of ground lease holdings.
As for the investor group, MW Group, Ltd. has led the acquisition, development and management of a $1 billion-plus commercial property portfolio that includes retail, industrial, office, self-storage facilities and senior assisted living communities.
Blackstone, meanwhile, is the largest owner of commercial real estate globally.
DivcoWest is a real estate investment firm headquartered in San Francisco that, along with its predecessor, has acquired about 61 million square feet of commercial space, largely throughout the U.S., since its inception in 1993.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
