The owner of three Honolulu office towers lost more money in the first quarter as a deadline neared for paying off property mortgages later this year.
Pacific Office Properties Trust Inc. said it had a
$3 million loss in the January-March period. That was an improvement from a
$3.3 million loss in the same quarter last year. However, the company is under pressure to pay off $320 million of debt that matures between August and December.
The Honolulu-based firm is trying to address the debt situation by raising investment capital and extending or refinancing the loans. Earlier this year the company expressed confidence in being able to avoid default, but it also has cautioned investors that there is no assurance the effort will succeed.
“We are working to
address challenges to
our liquidity position, particularly with respect to mortgage debt on each of our wholly-owned properties that is scheduled to mature in 2016,” the company said in a financial report filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “We do not currently have any committed financing sources available to refinance our debt as it matures. If we are unable to repay, extend or
refinance our existing mortgage debt, we may be forced to give back one or more of these assets to the relevant mortgage lenders.”
Pacific Office’s three wholly owned properties are Waterfront Plaza, Davies Pacific Center and the Pan Am Building.
Waterfront has a
$111 million mortgage
maturing Sept. 11. Davies has a $95 million mortgage maturing Nov. 11, and Pan Am has a $60 million mortgage maturing Aug. 11.
The company also owes $30 million on promissory notes to Pacific Office’s five founders and a $25 million debt to First Hawaiian Bank — both of which also mature later this year.
Larry Taff, Pacific Office president and CEO, announced in January that the company retained a broker and is aiming to attract more than $100 million in equity in return for as much as an 80 percent stake in the company while Shidler Pacific Advisors, a Honolulu firm that is owned and controlled by Jay Shidler and also includes Taff, would continue as operating partner in the business.
Shidler, who also is chairman of Pacific Office, formed the company in 2008 by contributing buildings he owned and selling stock to fund expansion. The timing, however, coincided with the U.S. economic recession. As a result, the effort to expand the company’s portfolio, which at its peak included 24 properties, failed in part because of difficulty selling new stock. Instead, Pacific Office ended up selling or losing most of its buildings to foreclosure as it dealt with financial losses in recent years.
Pacific Office has agreed not to sell its three remaining prime buildings until 2018 because of a tax issue affecting Shidler.
Besides the Waterfront, Davies and Pan Am properties, Pacific Office owns
5 percent stakes in a building at 1833 Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki and a building in Phoenix.
Shares of Pacific Office stock, which hit the market at about $7 in 2008, did not have any significant trading this week. The most recent closing price was $1.01 on April 27. Shares in the past 52 weeks have closed between a low of 11 cents on June 22 and a high of $1.75 on Jan. 20 about a week after the company announced its effort to raise capital.
