The developer of Mililani has put the master-planned Central O'ahu community's largest shopping center up for sale, in an effort that could bring seller Castle & Cooke more than $75 million.

Castle & Cooke recently listed the 450,000-square-foot Town Center of Mililani for sale with Los Angeles-based brokerage firm Eastdil Realty Co. without an asking price.

Harry Saunders, president of Castle & Cooke Hawaii, said the center is one piece of a roughly $700 million commercial property portfolio in several states that California-based Castle & Cooke is interested in selling to capitalize on high investor demand.

"Our primary thrust is a developer, not a passive asset manager," he said.

Saunders said the company has received extensive interest in the center, though he declined to identify prospective buyers. Saunders also declined to estimate how much the center, which is anchored by Wal-Mart, could fetch in a sale. For property tax purposes the city values the center at more than $75 million.

If sold, the center would follow several Hawai'i shopping mall sales, including last month's acquisition of Gentry Waipi'o Shopping Center by a Chicago firm that paid Waipi'o master developer Gentry Cos. $30 million for the property.

Favorable interest rates are driving much of the investment rush, while Hawai'i's commercial real estate market has attracted aggressive interest from local and Mainland investors bullish on the state's strong tourism industry, job growth, booming construction and rising property values.

"It's just a really hot market," said Joseph Leonardo, a local real estate broker who represented the Waipi'o center's buyer. "It ties into what's happening with the Hawai'i economy and the Mainland investors' strong appetite to buy really stable community shopping centers. It's a safe place to park money."

The Town Center of Mililani was developed as the third, but largest, shopping center in Mililani, a residential community that Castle & Cooke began creating from pineapple fields in 1968 and today has nearly filled out with about 15,000 homes.

The first Town Center phase opened in 1987 anchored by Star Market and Longs Drug, and has tripled in size over the last decade with additions of Wal-Mart, a 14-screen theater, City Mill, the University of Phoenix and restaurants such as Chili's Grill & Bar, Assagio and Ruby Tuesday. The center has about 100 tenants and is 100 percent leased.

At one time, the center on 41 acres was envisioned to grow to roughly 570,000 square feet and become the fourth-largest shopping center on O'ahu behind the roughly 600,000 square-foot Victoria Ward Centers.

But Bob Urquhart, a Castle & Cooke vice president, said the center today is considered more or less built out. "There's a little more room," he said, "but not a lot without adding a parking structure."

Mililani's other shopping centers are the Safeway-anchored Mililani Marketplace, which is the community's smallest, and the Foodland-anchored Mililani Shopping Center, which is about 180,000 square feet and was the community's first.

Alexander & Baldwin bought Mililani Shopping Center in 2002 for $30 million. That sale has been followed by many more, including Waikele Center for $201 million, Pearl Highlands Center for $114 million, Marketplace at Kapolei for $19 million and Wai'anae Mall for $14 million.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.