We’ve been looking into U.S. commercial property taxes paid in 2016 and have seen what types of businesses bring in the most to their local economies. Sunny Honolulu raked in over $50 million in property taxes last year, from the top 10 taxpaying properties alone. Over the past year, Honolulu City officials have debated whether to raise property tax rates for hotels and resorts even higher, in order to cover completion of the island’s ambitious 20-mile elevated rail project.
According to Civil Beat, construction is behind schedule and over budget, but the proposed property tax increase was rejected by the Budget Committee in mid-May. With a population of roughly 400,000 and one of the highest per capita costs of living in the nation, getting the expensive transit project on the rails continues to be a challenge and such a proposal may return in the future. Until then, let’s see which commercial properties contributed the most to Honolulu’s budget in 2016:
Find the 10 top taxpaying properties on the map below
1Ala Moana Center – $11,410,530 in property taxes in 2016
Ala Moana (via alamoanacenter.com)
- Year built: 1963
- Owned by: General Growth Properties Inc.
- Number of stores: 333
- Retail square footage: 2.3 million
- Assessed value: $920,204,000
2Sheraton Waikiki – $7,617,792 in property taxes in 2016
Sheraton Waikiki (via Sheraton-Waikiki.com)
- Year built: 1970
- Owned by: Kyo-Ya Management Co.
- Rooms: 1,636
- Assessed value: $580,531,500
3Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki – $7,406,225 in property taxes in 2016
Hilton Hawaiian Village Rainbow Tower and Lagoon (via HiltonHawaiianVillage.com)
- Year built: 1982
- Owned by: Hilton Worldwide Holdings
- Rooms: 3,386
- Assessed value: $565,978,500
4The Royal Hawaiian Resort Waikiki – $5,297,957 in property taxes in 2016
Royal Hawaiian Resort Waikiki (via royal-hawaiian.com)
- Year built: 1926
- Owned by: Kyo-Ya Co.
- Rooms: 1,636
- Assessed value: $403,743,100
5Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa – $4,184,514 in property taxes in 2016
Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa (via official Facebook page)
- Year built: 1976
- Owned by: Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc.
- Rooms: 1,230
- Assessed value: $311,955,900
6Royal Hawaiian Center – $3,357,594 in property taxes in 2016
Royal Hawaiian Center (courtesy of Festival Companies)
- Year built: 1979
- Owned by: J P Morgan Assets Management
- Number of stores: 110+
- Retail square footage: 310,000
- Assessed value: $260,000,500
7Halekulani Waikiki – $3,230,076 in property taxes in 2016
Halekulani hotel (via official Facebook page)
- Year built: 1983
- Owned by: Halekulani Corp. (subsidiary of Mitsui Fudosan Co.)
- Rooms: 453
- Assessed value: $246,155,400
8Bishop Square – $3,074,569 in property taxes in 2016
Bishop Square Towers (via WJE.com)
- Year built: 1972
- Owned by: Douglas Emmett
- Rentable square footage: 1,000,000
- Assessed value: $254,820,600
9Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort – $3,035,325 in property taxes in 2016
Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort (via official Facebook page)
- Year built: 1964
- Owned by: KSL Capital Partners
- Rooms: 639
- Assessed value: $231,314,000
10The Kahala Hotel & Resort – $2,993,911 in property taxes in 2016
The Kahala Hotel and Resort (via official Facebook page)
- Year built: 1963
- Owned by: Resorttrust, Inc.
- Rooms: 338
- Assessed value: $232,086,100
Methodology:
- Data sources: PropertyShark, proprietary research (download raw data);
- *Search was based on individual parcels; for multi-parcel properties the tax values and the year built listed are representative of the main parcel;
- 2016 tax values verified with Honolulu County Property Tax Portal and Assessor’s Office;
