Two trophy hotel purchases last year helped extend a rebound in Hawaii’s commercial real estate market for a second year while also bolstering the total dollar volume of investment to its second-highest level ever.

Investors responded aggressively to the state’s booming tourism industry by snapping up resort property to the tune of $2 billion last year, according to a report by commercial real estate firm Colliers International released for publication Friday.

Resort property purchases represented more than half the total dollar volume for all commercial property such as shopping centers, office buildings and warehouses sold last year, the report said.

In all, there were 245 purchases for a combined $3.66 billion last year. That represented a 35 percent gain from 182 purchases and a 66 percent jump from $2.21 billion the year before.

The dollar volume record was set in 2005 at $4.29 billion. Then a sharp decline ensued with the economic downturn and recession, and the local commercial property market bottomed out in a long trough from 2008 to 2011 with $600 million to $1.5 billion in annual sales before rebounding two years ago.

Mike Hamasu, director of consulting and research for Colliers, described the appetite from investors for commercial property last year as robust.

"It not only indicates the improvement in the financial markets and the flow of capital back to commercial real estate, but also the return of the hotel investment marketplace, which had been absent for most of the past recession,"he said.

The report said that in addition to record Hawaii tourism last year, demand for commercial property in the state was driven by general economic growth, low interest rates and tighter competition for commercial property on the mainland.

The two big hotel purchases last year were Maui’s Grand Wailea, which a government entity of Singapore bought for $665 million, and the Hyatt Regency Waikiki, which private equity firm Blackstone Capital bought for $450 million.

Other big hotel or resort property purchases were Hyatt Place in Waikiki ($131 million), the Courtyard by Marriott Waikiki Beach ($125 million) and the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua ($100 million).

Colliers said there were 15 hotel/resort property sales last year for $2 billion.

The next-biggest sector for sales was retail property with 52 transactions for a combined $760 million.

Undeveloped commercial land sales totaled $324 million. Multifamily housing complexes represented $261 million in sales. There were 22 office building sales for $185 million, and 35 industrial properties sold for $142 million.

One notable sale that involved a mix of property types including land, retail and office buildings was the $373 million purchase by Alexander &Baldwin Inc. of a real estate portfolio largely in Kailua from Kaneohe Ranch Co. and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation.

Colliers said Honolulu-based A&B spent more than $660 million last year buying property in Hawaii, including Pearl Highlands Center, Napili Plaza and Waianae Mall. A&Balso bought a collection of 30 residential properties on Kahala Avenue for $128 million from Japanese investor Genshiro Kawamoto.

Local investors accounted for 75 percent of all Hawaii commercial real estate purchases last year, Colliers said. That was down from 82 percent the year before.

Colliers counts commercial property sales of at least $1 million in its report. Major ground lease transactions also are counted, such as the Queen Emma Land Co. leasing the land under the International Market Place to development firm Taubman Centers Inc. to build a new shopping center on the site. Colliers said the value of the Taubman lease is $87 million.