UH in venture to develop Kona campus

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

The University of Hawai'i has joined forces with a private developer to work toward a college campus on the Big Island's Kona coast as part of a "university village" that could include a golf course, housing and a shopping mall.

Besides giving UH its first permanent campus in booming Kona, the plan marks the university's initial foray into the kind of public/private partnership that is gaining acceptance with the UH Board of Regents as the way to proceed in financially strapped times.

Regent Ted Hong has endorsed the concept — not just on the Big Island, but also in considering plans for a West O'ahu campus in Kapolei.

"I think it's a great deal," Hong said. "The same thing that should be done with West O'ahu. We get buildings and infrastructure. All we have to worry about is furniture and people."

A memorandum of understanding was signed Nov. 21 between the university and the Big Island's Hiluhilu Development LLC, associated with Charles Schwab, committing the two entities to exploring joint development of adjoining properties mauka of Kona International Airport at Keahole.

The university owns 500 acres of state land east of the airport, but it's all rock, with no water, roads, power, or sewage treatment facilities.

Hiluhilu also owns a substantial portion of similarly undeveloped land and has expressed willingness to finance the infrastructure and then lease buildings to the university, said Jan Yokota, director of capital improvements for the UH system.

Currently, UH offers classes at the West Hawai'i Center in a few rented spaces in Kealakekua and serves 500 students, both as a community college and with distance learning for classes in four-year degree programs.

But to keep up with growth on the Kona coast and throughout the Big Island, better and larger facilities will be needed. UH projections call for completion of Phase I of the permanent campus by 2006. It would serve 750 students.

"The plan is to move it to another location farther up the coast to service more people and have more of a university campus," said Yokota. "Initially, we would lease space from them as we are leasing space in the shopping center (in Kealakekua) now."

The memorandum of understanding notes that the cooperative development will be master-planned to include classrooms, office, living accommodations, food service and supporting commercial facilities for the West Hawai'i Center.

"My understanding is they will give part of that parcel (above the airport) up to a private developer in exchange for the private developer building the community college at no cost," said Hong, of the Kona plans. "The developer is planning a golf course, homes around the golf course, and he wants to put in a shopping mall ... and we walk into it."

It will also have some shared costs, although the agreement calls for Hiluhilu to pay for all shared roads, plus other shared infrastructure required to open the first phase.

Capital infrastructure costs that benefit only the university will be paid by the university.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.