Some exotic tenants have moved into The Vanguard Lofts condominium, giving the building that's nearing completion in Kaka'ako its first residents.

A group of sleek and flashy automobiles largely from Italy were delivered earlier this week by local auto retailer JN Group to the ground-floor commercial space in the 32-unit luxury condo project.

The dealership featuring cars from Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus and Maserati is slated to open in about a week. A blessing was held Thursday.

Joe Nicolai, JN Group president, said the new dealership will be the only exclusive exotic car retailer in the state.

"This is strictly for the exotics," he said.

The business is relocating from another JN showroom at 1069 S. Beretania St. shared with Audi.

The new dealership doing business as JN Exotics was initially expected to open last October, but delays Nicolai said were primarily due to permitting issues held up the schedule.

Vanguard Lofts is being developed by an affiliate of Honolulu-based U.S. Pacific Development LLC by converting and expanding the old NCR office building at 720 Kapi'olani Blvd. into a modern six-story complex with urban-chic design featuring residential units connected to rooftop lanai.

The residential side of the project had previously been slated for completion in April.

A representative of the developer and sales agent could not be reached for comment yesterday. Last year, unit prices ranged mostly between $1 million and $2 million. According to the project's Web site, six of the units are sold and two are unavailable.