HONOLULU – The Hilo Hawaiian Hotel on the Big Island has been purchased by a group of local investors for $17.3 million.

The purchase was announced in a Friday news release by the hotel’s general manager, Daryle Kitamori.

He said the new ownership is composed of Castle Resort & Hotels, RAM Corp. and attorney Rick Fried.

Castle has managed the hotel for over 20 years and will continue to do so under a multiyear agreement.

The group bought the hotel from CarVal Investors.

Home sales were down in May which is bad news and good news.  

Good news for potential home buyers.  

Once you make an offer, however, there are a number of things to consider.  

You have finally found the home of your dreams and you decide to make an offer on that house. 

“When you make an offer, you have to keep in mind that everything’s negotiable.  So you need to consider the top price that you’re willing to pay for the home and also make sure that everything is in writing,” said Erin Palmer, CPB Homeloan consultant. 

That’s important and it’s important to include in that contract any concerns you might have. 

“Once you’re offer is accepted, the contract becomes binding.  So, it’s important to note or write up the contract with any necessary contingencies,” said Palmer. 

There could be many small things included in such a contract, but there are much larger concerns that demand your attention and should be included in such a contract. 

“Some common contingencies are subject to approved financing, subject to the sale of a home, subject to a satisfactory home inspection,” said Palmer. 

Most home buyers are willing to pay what the property is worth and what the property is worth is especially important to potential lenders. 

“So lenders will require an appraisal to confirm that the value of the property is, corresponds to the purchase price that you’re paying,” said Palmer. 

There are just a couple of more steps before you are ready to take over ownership of your new home. 

“The escrow company will run what’s called a preliminary title report.  That will ensure that the property has clear title on it.  Also in many cases, especially for single family homes, a survey will need to be done to ensure that the property is within the boundaries of the property line,” said Palmer.

Taxpayers, include “concerned citizen” in your prayers tonight. He just added $1,529,506.94 to Maui County’s strained treasury.

Every week, the county Real Property Tax Division updates its Internet posting of the 25 biggest delinquent taxpayers. According to Tax Division administrator Scott Teruya, the list doesn’t change often. But it did last week, and an anonymous resident called The Maui News to wonder if Kaheawa Wind Power LLC, which held the top spot, was “out of money.”

No, but the company didn’t know it was behind on its taxes until a reporter called.

Kent Smith, president of Makana Nui Associates, which is a partner with First Wind in the farm, said telephone calls and e-mails were flying among company officials Wednesday and Thursday to figure out what happened.

Here, according to Smith and Teruya, is how the tax bill got overlooked for three years:

Kaheawa pays all expenses through a state lease, but when the farm went into operation in 2007, the state didn’t send the lease and permit papers to the county.

“We knew there was a wind farm there,” said Teruya, but there was no paperwork to process.

Kaheawa wasn’t getting bills, so it wasn’t aware it was delinquent.

Earlier this year, a county tax staffer looked into it more closely, decided taxes were due and sent a bill to the last-known address of the listed owner, UPC Wind in Newton, Mass.

However, between 2007 and now, UPC’s interest was renamed First Wind and the offices were moved to Boston.

The bill eventually was returned as undeliverable.

“The state and the county never assessed us and never forwarded any bills,” said Smith. “They didn’t find any way of contacting the local wind company.”

But Teruya said: “It’s not our place to go find anyone.”

It took about a day for Kaheawa to reconstruct what had happened, and Smith called Teruya on Thursday to assure him that First Wind’s chief financial officer, Michael Alvarez, was preparing to wire the money by Tuesday.

“One hundred percent,” said Smith by telephone Thursday from a golfing holiday in California.

It could be the harbinger of a big flow of tax revenue for the county. Kaheawa has 20 turbines, and the turbines account for much of the assessed value.

Kaheawa wants to expand by 14 units; Sempra is working on a wind farm of similar size in Ulupalakua; and Castle & Cooke and First Wind are projecting hundreds of turbines on Lanai and/or Molokai.

As of Thursday, Kaheawa still held first place in the list of top 25 delinquents, but Teruya was not concerned. “It seems like their intent is to pay. . . .

“It’s good that people are looking at the list,” he said.

Unemployment benefits ended for an estimated 6,000 Hawaii workers last month.

Hawaii foreclosure rate just shy of top 10

HONOLULU – The foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. reports Hawaii had the 12th highest foreclosure rate in the first half of 2010.

The islands had 6,482 filings, meaning one in every 79 households received a foreclosure notice.

By county, Honolulu had the most filings, 342, but the lowest rate at one filing for every 986 households. Kauai had one filing per 505 households with a total of 59; Maui had one filing per 245 households with a total of 270; and the Big Island had one filing per 242 households with a total of 329.

RealtyTrac said Thursday that nationwide nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009.

Maui News