The Maui News

Mahi Pono, the company that purchased 41,000 acres of Maui agricultural lands from Alexander & Baldwin, has appointed Larry Nixon as its general manager, the company announced on Wednesday.

Nixon joined Mahi Pono on Monday and will manage the company’s farming operations on Maui. Nixon is one of the first publicly announced members of Mahi Pono’s Maui team, following the Jan. 6 announcement of former Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui as the company’s senior vice president of operations.

“I am excited to be back in Hawaii and look forward to helping revitalize Maui’s once thriving and diverse agriculture community,” Nixon said in a statement. “Farming on an island is truly a community effort, and I am looking forward to sharing our planting and production plans, and working with the community and our farming neighbors.”

Prior to joining Mahi Pono, Nixon worked as a business unit manager for MacFarms of Hawaii. He’s also been the general manager of Malin Potato, operations manager for Roll International (now known as The Wonderful Co.) and operations manager for Sun Pacific. Nixon received a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Arizona State University.

“Larry brings more than 20 years of farming experience both in Hawaii and on the Mainland,” Tsutsui said. “Larry’s track record of success will be invaluable as we launch Mahi Pono’s diversified agricultural efforts in Central Maui.”

Mahi Pono is the joint venture of California-based Pomona Farming LLC and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers. The company completed its $262 million purchase of the old sugar cane lands in December.

A&B announced earlier this month that it had used $40 million from the proceeds of the Maui sale to purchase two warehouse buildings, totaling 150,000 square feet of industrial space, in the Kapolei Business Park Phase I on Oahu.

About 75 percent of the space will be leased by the former owner of the warehouses, Covan, a national moving company, A&B said in a Jan. 15 news release.

The deal closed Dec. 28, A&B said.

“These are high quality industrial assets, and we’re excited to add them to our portfolio,” said Lance Parker, A&B chief real estate officer. “Our focus in on Hawaii, and this is just the first step in our effort to reinvest the proceeds from the sale of our Maui farmlands.”