Richard Alan Wheelock is the president and Principal Broker of East West Realty, Inc., a Hawaii-based commercial real estate boutique brokerage firm. He is also the Hawaii licensed mortgage solicitor for Johnson Capital, a nationwide privately held capital advisory firm. In addition, Richard provides development and entitlement consulting services to various clients. He focuses on the placement of both debt and equity into both existing assets and development land deals.
Born in Ely, Nevada in 1953 and raised in Hawai’i, Richard graduated from Kailua High School in 1971. He attended the University of Hawaii School of Business Administration, focused on a real estate major. He started his career in real estate in 1972 in the home-building industry, and obtained his real estate license in 1978. He has earned the Graduate Realtor’s Institute degree, and is a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM), the epitome of commercial real estate professionalism. Married with six children and four grandchildren. Enjoys golf, travel, sailing, reading and work.
Working as a sales agent from 1978 to 1982 for Barbara Odor Realty, the exclusive sales agents for Windward Oahu developments by Jim Schuler, Brian Cook and others, Richard was the top sales agent for the company in 1980-1982. He built three small housing projects on Windward Oahu from 1978-1981, then formed his own company “Island Style Realty” in 1982, and operated that company with four agents until 1985. He formed and co-owned Kailua Realty Ltd. in 1985, serving as Principal Broker overseeing 25 agents and four employees until selling his one-half interest in the company in 1990. Richard then formed East West International Realty in downtown Honolulu in 1990, changing the name to East West Realty in 2000.
Richard developed a love of the “neighbor” islands early in life, and lived on both Molokai and Maui in the 1980’s. He maintains a mountain cabin on Kauai, and has had an office in Kona since 1986, spending two days a week on the Big Island. He has taken his love and knowledge of the neighbor islands and used them successfully in his career, being one of the first Oahu based brokers to regularly sell on the neighbor islands. He has sold properties on all five major islands. He has also sold real property in Japan (for Castle Medical Center) and Canada. Richard has done quite a bit of business with Asians, having been to Japan over a dozen times as well as other Asian destinations.
Some of the completed assignments Richard has been involved in include representing Lehman Brothers and Honu Group in their acquisition and consolidation of numerous parcels of land in Waikiki for “Luxury Row at 2100 Kalakaua” (Tiffany’s, Gucci, Coach, etc.); assisting Shinwa Golf KK in their acquisition of two golf courses and a hotel on Kauai at “The Kauai Lagoons”; being the operating partner in the joint venture which developed 129 acres in Kailua-Kona, taking the property through all phases of entitlements, subdivision, and site construction for the Lowes Home Improvement Warehouse; and representing two different buyers in their purchase of numerous resort development land parcels in the Mauna Lani Resort.
Specific debt placement assignments Richard has completed in the Keauhou Resort include the sale of the Japanese first mortgage in the face amount of $19,000,000 on the 36-hole Kona Country Club course from Mitsui Leasing (USA), Inc. to Credit Suisse First Boston and Arlen Capital; the subsequent re-sale of said first mortgage to Japan based UB Inc.; the bifurcation and sale of the Japanese first mortgage in the face amount of $90,000,000 secured by the Waikiki Beach Hotel and the Kona Surf Hotel from Mitsui Trust Bank to Leucadia National Corporation and Moshe Silagi; and the placement of a new $57,000,000 construction loan to re-model the Kona Surf Hotel from Canyon Capital for Koa Hotels.
Richard has done numerous real property transactions in the Keauhou Resort, including the sale of the leasehold interest in the Kona Surf Hotel from Moshe Silagi to Koa Hotels LLC (Brickman Associates and Arlen Capital) by obtaining a deed in a “friendly” foreclosure from defaulted owner Otaka, Inc. in a $15,000,000 transaction; re-negotiating the ground lease for the former Kona Surf Hotel (now known as the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa) for Koa Hotels with
Kamehameha Schools; and representing Bishop Holding Corp./Kamehameha Investment Corporation in their acquisition of the leasehold interest of the Keauhou beach Hotel from Southwest Value Partners for $28,000,000.
Past and current business relationships include Mitsui Trust Bank; Credit Suisse First Boston; Kumagai Gumi; Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate; Lehman Brothers; Mitsui Leasing USA; Brickman Associates; Yanase USA; Honu Group; TSA International; Lowes Home Improvement Warehouse; KFC Japan; Arlen Capital; Kona Country Club Inc.; Stanford Carr Development; Castle Medical Center; DR Horton, S
