News

Oct 12, 2023

Honolulu Freight Service buys former Love's Bakery headquarters

Honolulu Freight Service has purchased the former Love's Bakery headquarters for

Honolulu Freight Service has purchased the former Love's Bakery headquarters for an undisclosed price, the company announced Monday.

Located at 911 Middle St. in Honolulu, the 92,400-square-foot building was built in 1960 and sits on more than three acres of industrial property, according to an announcement from the transportation services company.

The move will help Honolulu Freight Service centralize its main operations in the Islands.

Honolulu Freight Service will renovate the building over the next year, "retaining elements of the original Love's Bakery design, for office and warehouse space," the announcement noted. More than 220 employees will be based at the new location, the company said.

"We look forward to operating out of this highly centralized location in urban Honolulu, which will allow us to enhance services for our customers," Executive Vice President Jim Beidleman said in a statement. "Several focus areas include providing seamless end-to-end temperature-controlled shipping and easy access to short-term warehouse storage at a competitive price for local businesses of all sizes."

Love's Bakery closed in March 2021 after nearly 170 years, citing losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said at that time. It was listed for sale the following May.

The property has a total assessed value of a little more than $24 million, according to county property assessment records.

Although the selling price was not disclosed, the Middle Street property was sold in 2013 for $13.97 million to Honolulu investor Duane Kurisu, who sold it in 2018 to an affiliate of a Japan-based company for $27 million, as Pacific Business News reported previously.

According to Monday's announcement, it's the largest property acquisition in Hawaii for Honolulu Freight Service, which was founded in 1936.

The company — which offers full container load, refrigerated, inter-island, oversize cargo, cargo consolidation, local trucking, flat rack loading and banding, air freight, logistics and warehousing services — will continue operations from its three locations on Oahu, a warehouse on Maui, as well as major terminals in Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland and Tacoma, the announcement noted.

William Froelich with Colliers International Hawaii represented the buyer, and Ryan Sakaguchi with Cushman & Wakefield ChaneyBrooks represented the seller.