Tokyo Developer Buys Sheraton in Anaheim : Real estate: The hotel’s Tudor-style exterior will be renovated into a European-style castle and village.

A Tokyo land developer, Pacific Islandia Resort Inc., has purchased the Sheraton-Anaheim Hotel for $35 million to $40 million and says it plans to acquire two more Orange County hotels.

Pacific Islandia, through its U.S. subsidiary, Pacific Islandia Guam Inc., purchased the 500-room Sheraton-Anaheim from the Maloof family of Albuquerque, N.M. The Japanese developer said it plans to renovate the hotel, which opened in 1968 and is near Disneyland and the Anaheim Convention Center.

Kaneyoshi Kawamoto, Pacific Islandia’s president, said Friday that his firm plans to acquire two other hotels in the county to cash in on an increase in the Japanese tourist trade. He declined to say which hotels the company is considering buying. The Sheraton-Anaheim is the first hotel the firm has acquired.

“We’re looking at some hotels in Anaheim and in the South Orange County area,” said Jeffrey Morse, formerly of the Sheraton Hotel-Newport Beach, who will become general manager of the Sheraton-Anaheim. “In addition, we hope to manage hotels for other investors in the county and Southern California area.”

Kawamoto said the hotel’s Tudor-style exterior will be renovated into a European-style castle and village.

“Until now, the property has just sat quietly in the shadow of Disneyland,” Kawamoto said. “We want to take the property out of the shadows and make it stand out on its own.”

Besides hiring Morse, Kawamoto said, no major changes in the hotel’s senior management are anticipated.

“The only changes we plan are those in the attitude of the present staff,” he added. “We plan to make the atmosphere of the hotel into what it should be: a place where guests can enjoy themselves thoroughly in their individual rooms and in all public places.”

Pacific Islandia plans to spend an additional $15 million to $20 million for renovations, according to a source familiar with the deal.

Joe Maloof, the hotel’s former owner, would not comment on the sales price. “We thought about selling it in the past,” Maloof said, “but didn’t have the need to until now because they offered a fair price.”

Pacific Islandia has formed a company, K & M Hospitality Inc., to manage the Sheraton-Anaheim as well as any hotel acquisitions that it makes in Southern California.

Kawamoto, 44, is also president of Pacific Islandia Resort’s parent company, Kawamoto Gakuen, an educational services company started by his father in Tokyo in 1976. He is also managing director of Tokyo-based Shibuya Educational Planning Co., an educational-testing preparation company.

Joanne Soboto, a hotel industry consultant for Laventhol & Horwath in Costa Mesa, said Japanese investors have become more interested in acquiring Southern California hotels and resorts as tourism from Pacific Rim countries has increased.

“The Anaheim-Disneyland area has always been a strong hotel market,” she said. The acquisition “is good for the Japanese investors because they can coordinate better with Japanese tour companies.”