A Japanese businessman who developed the Uraku Tower luxury condominium on Kapiolani Boulevard in the 1980s has expressed interest in taking over a floundering plan to build retail, boating and wedding facilities on state land in Waikiki.

Takao Uno of Executive Properties Inc. is the latest prospective investor to consider saving the long-delayed Waikiki Landing project mired in more than $1 million of debt and bankruptcy.

On Monday a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge gave the project’s struggling developer, Honey Bee USA Inc., led by local attorney Keith Kiuchi, three weeks of additional breathing room to secure a financing arrangement to pay off debts and keep hold of the valuable property being leased from the state.

The state, which is owed about $1 million in delinquent rent, wants to cut Honey Bee loose and possibly make its 1.2-acre site just Ewa of the Hawaii Prince Hotel fronting the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor available to other developers through competitive bidding.

But Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris said it was in the interest of all creditors to provide a little more time to see whether Uno or another prospective investor would put up money to pay off Honey Bee’s debts.

“There may be a deal here that’s better than the alternatives,” he said.

Faris, however, suggested that Honey Bee might have to deliver more than loan commitments or a purchase contract with an escrow deposit for him to keep Honey Bee’s plan alive.

“The state is being deprived of the rental value of the property during this period,” he said. “It may be necessary for a truly interested buyer to put some additional skin in the game and actually pay some rent.”

Honey Bee hasn’t paid the state rent since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November. Prior to the filing, Honey Bee owed the state about $600,000, and now with penalties and interest owes about $1 million.

The state has argued in court that Honey Bee shouldn’t be allowed to hold onto the lease because the Board of Land and Natural Resources voted in September to terminate the lease effective Nov. 15.

Honey Bee filed bankruptcy Nov. 13 as a way to prevent creditors from terminating leases or repossessing property. The state argues that the bankruptcy filing didn’t stop the lease termination because it was already scheduled to end.

This issue has yet to be addressed by Faris, but it could be on June 6.

The judge gave Honey Bee the additional three weeks to secure financing based on a declaration Kiuchi filed Monday saying that Uno had offered to buy Honey Bee’s interest in the lease for $2.5 million. The payment, if made, would pay off creditors that include the state, a local family trust that invested in Honey Bee and a construction company that did preliminary site work.

A second potential takeover could come from Nevada firm Straw Sense LLC, which is offering to give Honey Bee a $2.3 million loan and buy a 30 percent equity stake in the company for $200,000. If this deal is made, the $2.5 million would pay off creditors.

In either case, a takeover by Uno or Straw Sense would still require more capital to proceed with development now projected to cost about $22 million and include a four-story building fronting Ala Moana Boulevard with shops, restaurants and a boat repair facility on one site, and a two-story wedding chapel in a building designed to look like a ship extending into the harbor, along with a convenience store, finger piers and a fuel dock on a nearby site in the harbor.

A third building, which would have housed restaurants and a second wedding chapel, has been eliminated from the plan.

Honey Bee first proposed Waikiki Landing in 2008 in response to a state request for proposals to lease and redevelop the run-down sites occupied by a boat repair yard and fuel dock.

Two qualified developers expressed interest, but Honey Bee submitted the only bid and was selected in 2009.

A lease was signed with the Department of Land and Natural Resources in 2013 after Honey Bee produced an environmental assessment and obtained several permits plus a waiver from the Legislature on zoning regulations. An opening was projected for 2015.

“Mr. Kiuchi hasn’t given up,” said Chuck Choi, Honey Bee’s bankruptcy attorney. “I don’t know if we’re in the eighth inning or the bottom of the ninth. We need to come up with the money or walk away from the lease.”