Developers … Good, Bad or Pitiful?
Boy, we sure do read lots of things about developers these days. It seems like lots of folks who are pleased with what has been developed for them, such as their house and the local shopping center, may not be too pleased to see anything be developed for anybody else, right? I have even read some letters to the editor of our local newspaper in which developers are portrayed as evil people doing bad things to us for big, big profits!
My experience with developers and development is quite different, but that may be due to the fact that I actually have looked into the matter instead of relying on popular stereotypes. For instance, a company I manage built a very nice office building in Waimea recently, High Country Traders. It is a popular building and uses natural light and ventilation. It also has quite a lot of landscaping and was designed to fit into the pattern of historic Waimea architecture. That way it looks like it belongs where it is. The only problem has been trying to figure out how to make money on it!
It wasn’t very long ago that the Waikoloa Hiatt hotels were built. The Japanese had loads of money then and built something like 1400 hotel rooms, complete with a monorail train and a special boat to take you to your elevator! It was so funny to see, since most of us couldn’t imaging how they could charge enough money to ever get their investment back! We were told that we needed to “see the big picture”. Well it turned out the big picture was a bit harder to see than they thought, and the investors lost over $250,000,000 dollars on that development project. It is now called the Waikoloa Hilton and is operating on a much lower cost basis.
I wonder if anyone remembers Nansay Hawaii? Nansay was a good company with experienced people that developed the affordable housing at Ouli and the transitional housing at Kawaihae and did a great job of it. In fact they made so much money that they were forced into bankruptcy a few years ago. That is not unusual for a developer, actually.
Come to think of it, I read in the Honolulu Advertiser a few days ago that another developer has recently had to give up on building Hawaiian Homes houses. I know Fred Yamashiro, and he is a good man who was trying to build as cheaply as he could, so that Hawaiian families could get into housing as cheaply as they could. So what happened? Well the costs of building went way up way fast, and that was the end of the developer.
How about Hokulia in South Kona? That is one of the prettiest projects you can imagine. The developer there did everything right and still ended up losing millions and millions of dollars when the judicial branch of the Hawaii State Government disagreed with the legislative branch of the Hawaii State Government. The lawsuits have been bad theater from the start.
When you get right down to it, it is hard to find developers that actually make money, and it is easy to find developers who have lost everything in order to create housing, recreation and shopping experiences where none existed before. Maybe developers should have their heads examined before they are allowed to put their money on the line?
What do you think?
Imua,
Bill Jardine
Filed under: Updates
Right on Willie!!! Mele, Tom
Nansay did not develop at Mauna Lani Resort .
Tokyu Corporation is the owner/master developer of MaunaLani .
Excellent point, Roger! Nansay was Tom Yamamoto’s subsequent company, and corrections have been made. Homer nods to Tokyu Corporation and the excellent work they did!
It’s comforting to think of developers as nice, “we’re only thinking of you” guys. I know some developers here that live in the community and contribute to the well-being of a life we all share. However, the rapid proliferation of frentic, speculative development from out of state investors who will never have to live with the consequences of how their “improvements”have negatiuvely impacted the community do not fit that profile. And you don’t have to live out of state to come up with ideas that benefit the few rather than the many. It seems to me that the issue is not whether developers are good people or not, but whether any particular development will benefit the greater community or not. These days, that question is often considered irrelevant., and it’s the question that most often pits developers against neighborhoods and community groups. Thanks for the topic, Bill.
Fine commentary from one of New Mexico’s finest minds. You go girl! We are honored to have your two cents and hope to hear more from you in the future. Mele Kalikimaka to one and all
How cum no one never mentions P-A-R-K-E-R (AKA Parker Ranch Trust)? Our beloved, kama’aina, down home developer.
At this time the Parker Ranch Trust is transitioning to a new set of trustees that have been in large part selected by the beneficiaries. They look like a very good team, and I thought it right and best to cut them some slack. Look for future articles on this subject
[...] Quinten Gates hammered out a great article on HawaiiHere’s the brief overview of the storyI wonder if anyone remembers Nansay Hawaii? Nansay was a good company with experienced people that developed the affordable housing at Ouli and the transitional housing at Kawaihae and did a great job of it. … [...]