Special offer

Hokuli"a - Doomed from the beginning, now debt to be sold off

By
Real Estate Agent with Kona Home Team (luva llc) RS 62947

Surfers aren't the only ones losing their shirts in Hawaii ( according to the Wall Street Journal )

The final tally will become clearer later this month, when Bank of Scotland, now part of Lloyd's Banking GroupPLC, completes an auction for the debt on the property on the west side of Hawai'i, or, as it is known to locals, the Big Island. The price is expected to be in the $50 million-to-$100 million range, according to people involved in the process. follow this link for the complete article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704912004575252713409264610.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_realEstate

Personally the biggest take down of this project, was the whole PKO scam, it seems that all you need to do to legally blackmail a developer is name yourself after something that sounds like your to trying to protect something - like say - Protect Keopuka Ohana(PKO), and its easy. luckily in the end they were uncovered as fakes, and the millions that were earmarked for them personally was blocked, but they did still  find a way to make themselves Trustee's for life on the Board that oversees where the millions of dollars donated by Hokulia are spent - Gee, I wonder what they will be overseeing in the near future :) (this topic could be an entire mini series of blogs) If you want to have fun, just Google - PKO, Hokulia - makes for some good reading. Anyway, by the time the whole PKO scandel took place (2003-2006) the market was allready gone, they tried, but it looks like in the end - we all lose. Take a look at the end of this article to see how much the community stand to lose from this.

I Google'd Hokulia and found this article below - doesn't even really mention PKO, but it does give a good time-line of some of the other events that doomed this project from the beginning .

Hōkūli‘a, a disputed project located on the island of Hawai'i, near KealakekuaBay on the border b

Bank of Scotland PLC, a British bank that financed a boom-era, 1,500-acre luxury golf-course community in the Hawaiian city of Kailua-Kona, is suffering a steep loss on the stalled project.

etween North Kona and South Kona. The project covers approximately 1,550 acres of land, which includes roughly two and one-half miles of shoreline, and rises to an elevation of approximately 1,250 feet. Hōkūli‘a is being developed by Oceanside 1250, a partnership of Lyle H. Anderson and an affiliate of Japan Airlines. Oceanside began development and lot sales in 1998.

The development was to include:

  • 730 Home sites on agriculturally zoned land ranging in price from $1 million to $8 million.
  • a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course.
  • a 140-acre public shoreline park.
  • an 80-unit lodge to be used by Hōkūli‘a residents and their guests.

In 1998, Hawaii Countyofficials granted Hōkūli‘a a building permit. Oceanside had sought approval under a loophole in a 1976 law that allowed the conversion of agricultural land as long as the development included some farming component, thus bypassing the state Land Use Commissionapproval to reclassify the agriculture zoned land as urban.

In 2000, heavy rains sent runoff from Hōkūli‘ainto KealakekuaBay. Acting on a request from environmentalists and farmers, Judge Ibarrahalted construction until better runoff controls were built.

In March 2001, a bulldozer punctured a lava cave where native Hawaiian remains were buried, and construction was ordered halted again. Protect KeopukaOhanahad protested disturbing of remains due to construction.

In 2003, Judge Ronald Ibarra halted construction of the $1 billion project saying 1,550-acre Hōkūli‘a was a luxury-home development and not a farming venture. As part of its decision, the court stopped the county from issuing building permits to buyers, and enjoined Oceanside from providing utilities to the homes already under construction. The court also prevented Oceanside from maintaining and repairing project infrastructure without court approval. Oceanside could not resume the development of Hōkūli‘a unless the state Land Use Commissionchanged the zoning of Hōkūli‘alands from an agricultural to urban designation. At this point, Oceanside 1250 had sold more than 190 home sites and had invested more than $350,000,000 in Hōkūli‘a.

August 27, 2004, a trial court in Konaentered a final judgment, generally enjoining further development at Hōkūli‘a.

In November 2004, Oceanside 1250 asked the Hawaii State Supreme Courtto reverse the trial court's land use decision, as it lacked jurisdiction over the case. The Supreme Court was asked to expedite the appeal, if motion to dismiss was not granted. Hōkūli‘a lot owners filed their own pleadings with the Hawaii State Supreme Courtasking that the trial court's decision be promptly reversed.

In July 2005, 1250 Oceanside Partners made a new settlement offer to the five plaintiffs in the Hōkūli‘a case which was outright rejected by two plaintiffs. All attempts to mediate a settlement failed.

In September 2005, the Hawaii State Supreme Courtturned down a Hawaii Countyrequest to speed up a review of the controversial Hōkūli‘acase in Kona.

In October 2005, more than 150 individuals who bought into the Hōkūli‘a development sued Hawaii Countyand the state of Hawaii, seeking $265 million in damages.

In March 14, 2006, a settlement was finalized between1250 Oceanside Partners and plaintiffs, which Judge Ibarraapproved. According to a Honolulu Advertiser article dated March 15, 2006, the settlement package includes:

The package of community benefits Hokuli'a agreed to in the settlement requires the developer to:
  • Build up to 168 affordable homes.
  • Contribute $2 million over five years to a nonprofit foundation that benefits the community. The money would be earmarked for drug-treatment programs, KonaCommunity Hospital, student scholarships and to boost public school teacher pay.
  • Contribute another $1.2 million to nonprofit organizations named by the plaintiffs in the case.
  • Build a connector road that would allow Konacommuters to use a nearly completed portion of the MamalahoaBypass highway, thereby easing some of the area's traffic congestion. That portion of that roadway, from Keauhou to Haleki'iStreet, is 80 percent finished, De Fries said, but has notbeen opened for public use.
  • Scale back the Hokuli'a project to 665 units from the previously planned 750 units.
  • Drop plans for a members' lodge at Hokuli'a, an aspect of the project that under a ruling by Ibarrawould have required the approval of the state Land Use Commission in any event.
  • Expand the area of the project designated for conservation, sacrificing five lots to add to acreage that would be preserved around a burial site at Pu'uOhau.
  • Expand the Kona Scenic Park with a donation of three more adjoining acres.
  • Provide enhanced water-quality monitoring in the ocean at the project site and pay for a shoreline water-quality study for the area. The study would involve collecting baseline data to be studied before new developments are launched.
"I think it's good, PKOis happy with the settlement,&;quot; Medeirossaid. &;quot;It's incredible. What the community is getting has never been done, I don't believe, before.&;quot; [1]

The Advertiser article went on to say that a bill in the Hawaii State Legislature, if passed, would have reversed Judge Ibarra'sruling and allowed the Hōkūli‘aproject to finish. The pending legislation speededthe settlement process:

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Aloha, and have a great day 

Lance Owens (RS)

(808) 936-8383

Lance@KonaHomeTeam.com

www.KonaHomeTeam.com

LUVA Real Estate 

75-240 Nani Kailua Dr #8 , Kailua Kona, HI. 96740 (Pines Plaza

Comments (2)

Dave Roberts
Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty - Healdsburg, CA

I don't think any massive projects of this scale ever get built exactly as intended. We're dealing with the Saggio Hills project in Healdsburg and in spite of years of envirnomental impact reports and wide spread community buy-in for the project, it still had to go through the courts which mandated additional studies. I think the moral of the story is to stay out of development unless you have a Warren Buffet scale wallet.

Jun 06, 2010 05:08 AM
Kona Home Team (LUVA LLC) Lance Owens (RB-24133)
Kona Home Team (luva llc) - Kailua-Kona, HI
2024 Real Estate Expert - Hawaii Island

Yes - I think your right  - and even then you can get yourself into trouble

Jun 06, 2010 05:10 AM