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A piece of pre-war Waikīkī is changing hands

Street view of 413 Seaside Ave. in Waikīkī, acquired by Medusky & Co., Inc. Profit Sharing Plan from Cooper Enterprises Inc. for $6.25 million.
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Street view of 413 Seaside Ave. in Waikīkī, acquired by Medusky & Co., Inc. Profit Sharing Plan from Cooper Enterprises Inc. for $6.25 million.

Waikīkī has seen a lot of changes over the past 80 years, but some pre-war buildings remain —and one of them has just changed hands.

Despite the post-war building boom that transformed Waikīkī into an island of highrises, there are still surviving examples of low-rise pre-war Waikīkī.

One of these was just acquired by Medusky & Co., Inc. Profit Sharing Plan from Cooper Enterprises Inc. for $6.25 million.

The two-story building on Seaside Avenue was built in 1937 by Francis and Hazel Cooper, founders of Cooper Enterprises, then known as Hawaiian Transportation and Rock Products.

It was constructed using concrete bricks fabricated in-house and mahogany imported from the Philippines, according to the seller’s agent, Standard Commercial. The building was designed by Dahl and Conrad, which also designed a number of Waikīkī shops in the art deco style.

Originally built as apartments, the building was converted in 2017 to house two restaurants. That same year, it was listed on the U.S. National Parks Service's National Register of Historic Places.

Both the seller and buyer are local companies, their agents said, adding that the building had a couple of other attractions beyond its historic charm — it came with a ground-floor tenant, the restaurant Zigu, and was purchased fee simple, in a neighborhood where many properties remain leasehold.

A. Kam Napier is the editor-in-chief of Pacific Business News.
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