MetLife JV Obtains $120M for Hawaii Shopping Center

January 14, 2025

The partners have owned the property since 2014.

MetLife Investment Management and M&J Wilkow have obtained $120 million to refinance Town Center of Mililani, a 476,615-square-foot grocery-anchored shopping center in Oahu, Hawaii. PGIM Real Estate provided the fixed-rate financing through its core investment strategy.

aerial shot of The Shoppes at English Village — MetLife Investment Management has recently sold The Shoppes at English Village, a 103,325-square-foot retail center in North Wales, Pa. *Image courtesy of CBRE*

The joint venture had purchased the asset from Nuveen Real Estate for $227.3 million back in 2014, according to Pacific Business News. The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. provided a $120.5 million loan for the acquisition.

Completed in 1987 on some 41 acres, Town Center of Mililani underwent a $13 million renovation which was completed in 2017. The retail property is at 95-1249 Meheula Parkway, close to Highway 2.

Times Supermarket, Walmart, Consolidated Theaters, Longs Drugs, UFC Gym and Straub Family Health Center anchor the open-air shopping center. Its roster features a total of 78 tenants which also include AT&T, Bank of Hawaii, Five Guys, Great Heights, Fun Factory, Ninja Sushi, Panda Express, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Supercuts, Taco Bell and Supercuts, among others.

With a 140-year history of real estate financing, PGIM Real Estate had $212 billion in assets under management and administration as of September 2024. In November, the firm provided a $171.4 million loan for the refinancing of the Southeast Grocery-Anchored Portfolio, a collection of eight retail properties totaling nearly 1.2 million square feet.

Hawaii’s retail scene

Oahu’s retail market has strong fundamentals due to its dense population and dynamic neighborhood areas, PGIM Managing Director Tom Goodsite said in prepared remarks. However, the state saw a significant drop in investment activity in the third quarter of 2024.

There were no retail investment sales recorded between July and September in Hawaii, according to a CBRE report. The third quarter of last year also witnessed a notable shift in rental trends, with the overall average net asking rent decreasing to $39.66, down $8.68 from the previous quarter. Additionally, the availability rate for retail spaces increased to 4.8 percent, up by 0.3 percent over the quarter.