Much of the redevelopment action in Kakaako so far has been makai of Kapiolani Boulevard, largely by Howard Hughes Corp. in its Ward Villages and by Kamehameha Schools’ project partnerships.
But ready or not, start looking mauka: Hawaiian Electric Co. is launching a search for private-developer proposals so it can sell eight of its 10.7 acres across from Neal Blaisdell Center.
No doubt the location is prime — it’s bordered by three condo towers, Symphony Honolulu, One Archer Lane and the Royal Court — as is the timing: HECO’s 10.7 acres is valued by the city at $161 million, excluding $19 million for buildings, a hefty increase from $100 million in 2013. Plus, the lease on HECO’s historic downtown headquarters on Richards Street, on Kamehameha Schools land, expires in 2021.
It’s also a pivot period in Hawaii’s energy future, with new technologies emerging amid the state’s policy push for 100 percent “clean” energy by the year 2045.
All this convergence makes it an ideal time for HECO to look for more efficiencies, including from within: About 700 workers are overcrowded at the Kakaako hub, while another 700 are spread over seven other sites, some of them leased offices downtown. Consolidating operations and improving functionality, the utility said, are top reasons for this potential top-dollar real estate sale.
Beyond more changes for Kakaako, all this also has implications for energy ratepayers.
“What we’re hoping to get out of this is an investment that, through efficiency and cost savings, gets passed on to the customer,” said HECO spokesman Jim Kelly.
More power to HECO, then, as this process commences. Ratepayers, the Public Utilities Commission and the Consumer Advocate all will be following this closely.
Helping homeless clear records
Why won’t the chronically homeless get off the streets?
There are any number of reasons — mental illness, deep poverty, plain stubbornness — but one factor could be legal problems. Being charged with a crime, however minor, makes it more difficult for someone to reintegrate into society.
Still, justice must be served. The courts face the distinct challenge in defining what justice means when applied to the very poor and disadvantaged.
Responding to the challenge, the state’s Community Outreach Court Project, aka the homeless court, completed its first year. The results are encouraging, but also illustrate the intractability of the problem. Some 57 homeless defendants charged with minor, non-violent crimes appeared before the court, and 601 cases were cleared, according to the city Prosecutor’s Office. The defendants were sentenced to serve 676-1/2 hours of community service in lieu of fines or jail. That’s a good start.
However, there’s room for improvement in the court’s broader goal of getting the defendants back on their feet.
Of the 57, only nine found housing. Nine went into homeless shelters, 11 found employment, five began substance abuse treatment and two received driver’s licenses or learner’s permits, said the Prosecutor’s Office. We’d hoped those numbers would be higher.
The Legislature should support the court’s efforts to make those number grow, including adding a mobile court to reach more of the homeless.
Takai campaign fund questions
There’s something unseemly when, in the 18 months after a political candidate has died, his campaign committee’s treasurer has received nearly $90,000 for consulting services. Whether legalities have been breached, though, is questionable in this case of Dylan Beesley, who was treasurer of the re-election campaign for the late U.S. Rep. Mark Takai, a campaign aborted in May 2016 amid Takai’s cancer battle; he died about two months later.
Federal Election Commission records show Takai’s campaign collected $1.1 million for that re-election bid and spent about $791,800 through December 2016. To date, the campaign has refunded at least $177,000 in contributions.
Since Takai’s death, though, $86,508 went to Beesley’s Lanakila Strategies, a consulting firm that’s listed as “not in good standing” with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs for not submitting business registration filings for 2016 and 2017.
That cloud might be migrating over today’s congressional candidacy of state Attorney General Doug Chin, who on Friday said he’s keeping Beesley as his campaign manager and expressed confidence that rules have been followed since the FEC is highly regulated with reports going through compliance reviews.
Still, it would have been better for all involved, including donors who gave to Takai, if the late congressman’s campaign fund had been cleanly reconciled well before now.
