LCA meets with HRI,
BYU-Hawaii calls off Moana St. project

While some Laie residents were still wondering what to do about the March 6 announcement that Hawaii Reserves, Inc. (HRI) had stopped plans to develop affordable housing on its Malaekahana property, approximately two dozen BYU-Hawaii faculty and staff families — some of whom had already temporarily relocated — were notified on March 20 that the university had canceled plans to replace its 26 homes on Moana Street in Laie with 52 new units.

LCA housing committee meets with HRI

The Laie Community Association (LCA) housing committee met on April 3 in the Laie Elementary School cafeteria with HRI's Sr. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Eric Marler [pictured at upper left] to "get a better understanding of why the project was pulled" and determine what, if any, options LCA might pursue to develop affordable housing.

"We are willing to continue the dialog," Marler said at the outset of the meeting, "but we cannot be the ones stipulating the needs of the community."

Marler listed several reasons why HRI stopped its Malaekahana project:

• "We really weren't side by side with the community," he said. "It's important that everyone be united, step up and be heard in the political process. It really does make a difference."

• Since HRI first contemplated its project, several other developers have also started trying to develop affordable housing in the Malaekahana area.

• The costs of materials and construction have increased sharply since planning began, making it very difficult to build affordable housing.

Marler explained that two-to-three years ago infrastructure costs, "just to prep the ground," were estimated at $140 million, and then you have the cost of building the homes. So, for example, a house might actually cost $400,000 to build, but sell for only $250,000. The difference would have come from the profits in selling 49% of the homes in the proposed project at market rate.

"This project was never going to be a money-maker for HRI," he said, "but we had to cover our costs."

• "Land was really the only cost component we could play with," he continued, pointing out that HRI suggested using a leasehold model. "We wanted the property to be affordable at a sustainable basis," and not just for the first-generation buyer; "but the people in the community didn't seem to care for that very much."

Marler noted to sell the homes and land fee simple would have meant going to a market-to-affordable mix as high as 80% to 20%, respectively.

"The program has to pencil [make economic sense], and it has to have community support. Then we have something we can work with. We're open to ideas," Marler added. He also said HRI would share data with the LCA committee.

Questions and suggestions started at that point in the meeting. For example, Marler was asked about limiting buyers to Koolauloa residents. "You can't do that," he replied, but noted you can on the basis of employment.

Former LCA board member Verla Moore stressed that economic development must come before new housing. "We've got to find ways to bring more money into this community. I feel it's a blessing that HRI stopped the project."

Moa Mahe, one of the partners in Malaekahana Hui West LLC, said their purchase of 455 acres from the former Campbell Estate and plans to develop part of it into affordable housing "came out of need" — because only about half of his employees currently own homes in the area. "There are so many young people out there that want to do it."

A point that Aaron Campbell, another of the Malaekahana Hui West partners, confirmed. "What disturbed me is that all of my classmates and friends left. I lived in Provo [Utah] for 11 years, and all of my friends want to return. We're not developers in the traditional sense. This project is really hard now, because of the economy. We've got some huge hurdles, but it's not impossible."

"We're going to have a lot of hurdles," Mahe said, pointing out he hopes to leap those through community support, working closely with the other developers, and donating 50 acres to Kahuku High. He also said approximately 400 people have already signed up for his Affordable Housing Coalition, and added that the group will call a meeting in the near future.

LCA President Pane Meatoga pointed out that when master planning for the project began, "all the components had to tie into the housing. You cannot have one component run off by itself. As we move forward, we've got to look at the whole picture…and see what makes sense." He added that LCA has already looked at self-help housing and several other options.

Rose Ram, a Chamorro whose family owns a home in Laie and ancestral lands in Guam, pleaded for the "mindset and thinking that we can't do it" to stop. "I'm not from here, but I love this place and want to invest my life here. We've got to look at what will work here."

At the end of the meeting, Mahe described HRI's decision as "brilliant…because it forces us to do something."

BYU-Hawaii to revise faculty/staff housing plans

In a follow-up meeting on March 25 with concerned faculty and staff, BYUH President Steven C. Wheelwright listed three reasons for the decision to stop the Moana St. project:

• "We had seen HRI's project as our long-term solution," he said. "When their board determined they shouldn't proceed with what they were doing, they were told that they should instead focus on the needs of the university and the PCC." He also said "we wanted to make sure we had a long-range plan that we believed in and knew what it was going to cost" before asking Latter-day Saint Church officials for millions of housing dollars.

• Wheelwright indicated BYUH had concerns about their development partner in the project.

• Third, he said, "it was clear that a number of faculty had never been pleased with the fact that we were doing the project, that it was moving forward."

Wheelwright added that BYU-Hawaii will "come up with another proposal that we want to be the first phase of a long-term solution that solves our long-term needs, as opposed to an interim step without having a long-term proposal."

Meanwhile, Michael Bliss, BYUH Vice President of Administrative Services, which includes housing, said the Moana St. units will be refurbished for now, or restored in the few cases where demolition had already begun; and Wheelwright indicated those homes will eventually go on sale to faculty and staff.

"We have not priced those homes yet," he said. "That's going to take a little longer."

BYU-Hawaii recently called off plans to demolish 26
existing faculty-staff homes on Moana St. in Laie,
and replace them with 52 new units. Latter-day Saint
'labor missionaries' built most of the Moana St.
homes in the early 1960s.

Wheelwright stressed that BYU-Hawaii is still proceeding with plans to sell its townhouse units to faculty and staff. "We're right where we were with that. Nothing has changed," he said, adding the university is also working with Fannie Mae financing.

He also said his staff should complete its long-range housing plan by this fall and include the on-campus portion in the university's Plan Review Use (PRU) Permit application to the City and County of Honolulu.

"The PRU is basically a wish list for the next 10 years of all that we might do on campus," he explained. "They [the City] approve it once, and then we can go in and get quick approval for individual items." He added the PRU process BYU-Hawaii has to go through is much simpler than the commercial development process that applied to HRI's project.

Wheelwright added the BYUH housing plan will probably include three types of housing: "Apartments — think of them as starter units for young married families; more townhouses and townhouse-like units, and we'll have more single family homes. Those may end up being homes we buy in the community, or they may involve new construction."

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