Developer offers deal on Kahuku mill homes

This is from the Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - July 27, 2007 by Janis L. Magin

The Kahuku Villages Association is holding meetings this week to brief residents of the old mill camp on the landowner's plan to sell them their homes at deep discounts.

When owner Continental Pacific purchased the 240 acres of land from the former Estate of James Campbell a year ago, it made a deal with the city and the community that would allow the tenants to remain in the 72 plantation-era homes along Kamehameha Highway.

The landowner also proposes preserving two parks and two cemeteries and donating the land beneath the 9-hole municipal golf course in Kahuku.

Continental Pacific is seeking community support to take to the Honolulu City Council, which will have final say over a waiver that would allow the company to sell 18 one-acre beachfront home lots for about $1.5 million each, while providing the affordable housing.

"That's what we're going to be using as our seed money for the infrastructure and hopefully make a little bit of money at the end of the day," said Continental Pacific spokesman Eric Morrison.

The company hired Realtor Abe Lee to begin the process of dividing the land beneath the village homes into lots averaging 10,000 square feet under state condominium laws. The company plans to then sell the houses and land units back to the tenants for an average of $75,000 fee simple.

The only house on the market in Kahuku is a five-bedroom home on the mauka side of the highway listed for $698,000.

The company has submitted a letter of intent to the residents at the request of community groups, which Kahuku Villages Association members are presenting to tenants in a series of meetings. About 34 people attended two meetings on Tuesday, and about the same number were expected to attend a meeting Thursday night, said Leslie Llanos, the board secretary, whose husband is a third-generation Kahuku resident.

Meanwhile, the Keep Kahuku Country group held a meeting Tuesday night to encourage residents to oppose the plan, which they claimed would carve Kahuku into 20-acre lots that would be developed with multimillion-dollar homes.

"It's not acceptable to many of us that have lived here over 58 years that the beach alongside the beautiful municipal golf course would be gone to mansion development," former Kahuku Villages Association member Margaret Primacio told KITV.

But Morrison said Continental Pacific has no plans to develop homes on 20-acre lots. The company has a plan to divide the land into 20-acre agricultural lots as a backup in the event the waiver, known as a 201H waiver, is rejected and the company is unable to sell the homes to the tenants at the reduced price.

"The plan is not really that difficult to understand," said Llanos, who said the majority of residents support the proposal.

"Continental Pacific's project is basically a win-win for both parties," she said. "The 18 lots that they're putting on the beach pays for the infrastructure. It beats anything that we've ever had on this island."

jmagin@bizjournals.com 955-8041