Hopewell Holdings LLC of Hong Kong said it is not the entity, nor the owner of a subsidiary, that recently bought the Sears site at Edison Mall in Fort Myers.
A person named Sau Ping Kwok is the registered agent for the Edison Florida Real Estate, which paid $5.8 million for the closed Sears store and some surrounding parking lots. A Sau Ping Kwok formed Edison Florida about three months ago, and lists an address in Orlando as its office. Edison Florida Real Estate is registered with the Florida Secretary of State's Division of Corporations.
A name search shows a Sau Ping Kwok is a director of Hopewell Holdings, and wife of the company founder.
But Hopewell said in an email to WGCU News that its Sau Ping Kwok is not the one involved with Edison Florida Real Estate, and that Edison Florida is not a subsidiary.
Hopewell sent this to WGCU, which published a story about the sale last week.
“Hopewell Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries (HHL Group) does not own property in Fort Myers, nor does it own any interests in Edison Florida Real Estate LLC. The listed owner of Edison Florida Real Estate LLC, Sau Ping Kwok, is not married to Sir Gordon Ying Sheung Wu and is not a director of HHL Group.”
Edison Florida Real Estate does not list a phone number.
A local commercial Realtor said people in the business have talked about a Hong Kong connection to the buyer. But they, too, may have relied on a name search that incorrectly brought up Hopewell.
WGCU regrets the error and confusion about the property buyer. We will continue to try to reach the Sau Ping Kwok who is the registered agent for Edison Florida.