UH project planning on hold
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Two of the University of Hawai'i's potentially biggest development projects — new Manoa campus housing and Phase I of UH-West O'ahu in Kapolei — were postponed for a month by the Board of Regents yesterday, with regents asking for more information on the proposed development team for West O'ahu, the Hunt ELP Ltd. firm of El Paso, Texas, and Honolulu.
Regents also rejected the university's first choice to build three new Manoa student dorms: Actus Lend Lease LLC of Honolulu, teamed with Allen & O'Hara Development Co. LLC of Memphis, Tenn.
Vice chairwoman Kitty Lagareta said it doesn't mean the projects are dead, but that it shows the regents are being careful.
"We haven't backed down on either the student housing or the commitment to West O'ahu," Lagareta said. "These things are going to happen.
"But these are brand-new processes on very, very big projects. The whole idea of going into these kinds of public/private relationships is a whole new thing, so we're proceeding very thoughtfully."
Both projects would entail partnerships with private developers — the first time UH has done so on a major construction project for which the state hasn't provided money. When the idea was raised more than a year ago, the board viewed it as the only way a West O'ahu campus could be realized after almost 30 years of talk.
Phase I would cost $120 million and provide space for about 1,500 students on about 50 acres of a 500-acre parcel of state land. The campus eventually would cover 150 acres, with an additional 100 acres held for further expansion and the remaining 250 used by the developer for commercial and residential projects.
Woody L. Hunt, a Texas developer who heads the Hunt partnership and also sits on the University of Texas System Board of Regents, said his group would work to provide the board and UH administration any further information they require. Regents especially wanted further details on the various members of the Hunt team, including their backgrounds and experience.
At the Manoa campus, UH wants to team with a developer to rebuild Frear, Gateway and Johnson halls to add 1,700 new beds to the campus, for a total of 4,700 beds by 2009.
"We want to make sure we pick the best," regent Andres Albano Jr. said. "It was a tossup between Actus Lend Lease and American Campus Communities (of Austin, Texas). This being such a hot visible project, we want to make sure we choose the best ... and the selectee (Actus) brought forward was not the best."
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
