A Japanese real estate investor has purchased a former retail property on a Waikiki corner near The Ritz-Carlton Residences Waikiki Beach for nearly $5 million.
The sale of the 4,108-square-foot property at 352 Lewers St. closed on May 19 for $4.76 million to Dreamaps Estate LLC, whose manager is Daiko Nagato.
Wendell Brooks III of JLL represented the seller, while Anthony Provenzano of Cushman & Wakefield ChaneyBrooks represented Nagato.
The one-story commercial building on the 352 Lewers property, at the corner of Kuhio Avenue adjacent to the Ritz-Carlton’s parking lot, was most recently a Whalers General Store.
Nagato, who is known in Japan as a co-founder of the music company Being Inc., is reportedly planning to redevelop the property.
Investors from Japan, as well as visitors, have yet to return in numbers to Hawaii because of travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, although a few have bought real estate remotely, such as the investor from Osaka who bought a boutique hotel on Saratoga Road in Waikiki at the beginning of the year after seeing the property on video tours.
And one Japan investor is selling a prime Kalakaua Avenue property — the Waikiki Galleria Tower — to local investor BlackSand Capital.
