Posted on: Thursday, September 2, 2004
Groups take stands on leasehold law
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Two opposing groups took public stands yesterday in an increasingly active debate about the city's condominium leasehold conversion law.
An organization called Save Hawai'i's Children yesterday picketed outside mayoral candidate Duke Bainum's Kapi'olani Boulevard campaign headquarters, to draw attention to its call for the repeal of Chapter 38. The proposed repeal has passed its first reading before the City Council, but some members of the organization said they fear that Bainum could block the repeal if he's elected mayor.
The group includes various small landlords who do not want to sell the fee interest on their land, but most members are associated with the "ali'i trusts" — charities established by Hawaiian royalty, such as Kamehameha Schools and the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center.
Bainum, who was speaking at a political forum during the demonstration, issued a written statement.
"I admire the ali'i trusts and admire the wonderful job they do providing for our community," he said. "I also support home ownership and the right of people to own their own homes — whether they live in condos or in single family dwellings. The Supreme Court upholds that belief, so it is the law of the land."
A spokesman for his campaign pointed out that both Bainum and his mayoral opponent Mufi Hanneman voted for conversion while both were councilmen, although Hanneman since has changed his position.
Bainum's comments are echoed by another group, the Hale Coalition, representing the 22,000 condominium lessees who have used the law to buy their property and about 23,000 who have not exercised that option yet.
"It would be very unfair for the law to be repealed before they have the opportunity," said Jane Sugimura, coalition president.
Sugimura bought the fee interest in her Pearlridge condo-minium since the law was passed in 1991 but is advocating on behalf of those whose proceedings may have stalled, or who have delayed seeking condemnation until they are confronted with a higher lease rent. She and other members said the law asserts that access to home ownership is in the public interest, a legal basis for condemnation that has been upheld in court.
On the opposing side stand people such as Dr. Jeremy Lam, one of 26 family shareholders in a Waikiki condominium who don't want to sell. Proponents of the leasehold conversion say such landlords can reinvest their proceeds in other properties.
"But you can't invest in any better place than Kalakaua Avenue," Lam said.
Save Hawai'i's Children spokesman Adrian Kamali'i said the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust could lose 20 percent of its annual revenue, or about $10 million, if forced to sell the interest in its property, Foster Towers. Kamehameha also seeks to protect its revenue from Kahala Beach Apartments, where lessees are seeking fee conversion, said Rod Ferreira, a Kamehameha alumnus.
Hawaiians consider condemnation of private condominiums an unfair taking of property from small landowners that does not serve a public purpose.
"We have to come to some kind of accommodation between Hawaiians and the rest of the people here, so we can go on living harmoniously," Ferreira said.
