BUSINESS BRIEFS
700 Maui sugar workers on leave
Advertiser Staff and News Services
The state's last sugar producer said it is furloughing 700 Maui workers for a week to cope with the worst drought in the company's history and a 25 percent loss in sugar production.
Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar General Manager Frank Kiger said the company has to cut costs after two abnormally dry years shrank its annual harvest.
He emphasized the layoffs are temporary.
The move adds to the hard times on Maui, where the visitor industry and Maui Land & Pineapple have laid off people this year.
Willie Kennison is head of the Maui Division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142.
He said workers understand the drought issue but he believes other management problems have also hurt HC&S's sugar production.
A&B ACQUIRES WAREHOUSE COMPLEX
Alexander & Baldwin Inc. yesterday said it bought a large California warehouse complex as part of a continuing strategy to acquire logistics-oriented assets in emerging industrial markets.
The project in Visalia, Calif., comprises four buildings with a combined 790,370 square feet of space within a 480-acre master-planned logistics park called Midstate 99 Distribution Center.
A purchase price was not disclosed. A&B said it used tax-deferred proceeds from prior real estate sales to make the acquisition, along with assuming debt on the property.
A&B said the four buildings, which collectively have retail and wholesale tenants leasing 94 percent of the project, were constructed from 2001 to 2008 by San Diego-based industrial development firm The Allen Group.
The purchase brings A&B's commercial investment property portfolio to 7.9 million square feet of retail, office and industrial space in Hawai'i and eight Mainland states.
CASE TO RECEIVE $27,000 RETAINER
Steve Case, the former AOL executive who is Maui Land & Pineapple Co.'s largest shareholder, will receive an annual cash retainer of $27,000 for joining the Kahului-based company's board of directors.
Maui Land & Pineapple announced Monday that Case was joining its board. In addition to appointing Case, the board also increased the number of directors to 10 from nine, and the number of its Class One directors to four from three.
Case was appointed as a Class One director, a category whose terms of office expire at the 2009 annual meeting of shareholders.
MLP shares hit a 52-week low of $7.50 in midday trading yesterday before recovering to close up 32 cents at $8.20.
KAISER ADDS SENIOR FITNESS OFFERINGS
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii has expanded benefits under its Senior Advantage Plan to include a new program that provides more fitness offerings for senior citizens in the state.
The new Silver & Fit program includes free membership from nearly 60 local participating fitness clubs and also social events for Senior Advantage members. There also is a quarterly newsletter and a Healthy Aging Kit containing 48 fitness classes on a DVD.
Kaiser Permanente said nonmembers can also join the Senior Advantage program and gain access to the Silver & Fit plan.
Kaiser Permanente is the second-largest health plan in the state with more than 220,000 members. The Hawaii Medical Service Association is the biggest health plan, insuring about 700,000.
