Peter Savio says he’s having far too much fun to retire. At 67, the self-described “real estate broker, developer and social worker” owns roughly 30 businesses — and shows no signs of slowing down.

Coming down the pike for Savio are rent-to-own projects planned on Oahu and Maui, condominium conversions, purchasing more dormitories for student housing and expanding the Pagoda hotel brand, among other ventures.

But he is most excited about the large-scale rent-to-own projects because, he said, owning real estate is so important for locals.

“This is what we need to do as a state so our local residents can stay, can thrive, can be successful,” he said. “There’s a certain pride, a certain security” in home ownership.

His projects are focused on serving the local community — such as saving jobs and retaining affordable rates in his latest acquisition, Uncle Billy’s Hilo Bay Hotel, which was renamed Pagoda Hilo Bay Hotel.

Savio was unpopular during the lease-to-fee conversions in the ’90s when he worked with landowners, including Bishop Estate. Lessees believed they were being charged too much to buy their fees.

It was a difficult time for the family and might explain why none of his three adult children work in real estate.

“A lot of parents got mad about the lease-to-fees and wouldn’t allow their kids to play with my kids, even though they’d been friends for years,” Savio said. “They kind of grew up with that, and to them real estate was not a lot of fun.”

These days, Savio, who lives in Aina Haina, enjoys date nights with his wife of 41 years, Phyllis; planting a Native Hawaiian forest on land near his storage/industrial area in Waikele; and caring for the baby koi at the Pagoda Hotel, which he owns.

Savio said Phyllis, a Republican, blames him for President Barack Obama being in the White House. It was on one of their date nights that Savio struck up a conversation with Obama, who was scooping their ice cream at Baskin Robbins. As Savio tells it, the shy Obama said he attended Punahou School.

Savio told him: “You go to Punahou. You work at night. Sheesh, you can be president of the United States!”

It’s the only time he laughed, Savio said.

“And then he was kind of smiling, like, yeah, I could be president of the United States.”

Question: Where did that social work aspect of your business come from?

Answer: I would think that my parents were very much that way, very community-oriented. Business was not about making money. Money was just the yardstick by which you measured your success.

Q: Could I get the names of all your businesses or are there too many to list?

A: I think there’s 30-something. The big ones would just be Savio Realty, Savio Growth Ventures, which is the new development company, Hawaii Student Suites, which is the dorm company, and Pagoda Hotels. … and Savio Asset Management. Can’t forget that — that’s the one I’m president of.

Q: Could you tell me about any upcoming deals?

A: Right now, Savio Growth, we’re working on the Caves at Waikele, an industrial storage warehouse project. We’re also doing the Niu Valley Shopping Center as a condominium shopping center. We’ll close some time in May. … I just bought Uncle Billy’s, so we’re managing that now … and we’ll try to expand the occupancy and uses of that property. We’re looking at building a hotel on Maui. … We bought the Maui Beach and the vacant lot that goes with the Maui Palms, which was an old hotel that was torn down. We’re going to build a Pagoda hotel on that site, and we’re very close to starting construction on that.

I’m teaming up with someone to buy some dorms here in Hawaii for our dorm business. We’re working on that. We’ve got about 10 projects we’re looking at analyzing in terms of buys for condo conversion, hotel acquisition, dorm acquisition, which tend to be my main areas.

I am actively looking for a project where I can structure my rent-to-own program, and even looking at building a new subdivision so we’d be able to do single-family homes where local residents could rent them and build equity.

Q: Ideally where would that be?

A: I’m looking at two on Maui, two possible sites on Maui and each would be about 500 homes, and I’m looking at one here on Oahu that would be about 1,000. That’s out in the Kapolei-Kunia area. It’s very premature, but we’re working on it.

Q: How would the program work?

A: They would pay market rent, whatever the market rent is, and then a portion of that would be going to pay down the loan. Whatever goes to equity on the loan goes to the tenant in the form of a payment when they get ready to go buy a house. I would ask the state to waive the 4 percent tax on the rent and that $60, $70, $80 a month goes into the tenant’s account. I’d ask the city to waive the property taxes and I’d actually give it to the tenant. … So after 10 years it’s possible they’d have $70,000-$100,000 in this savings account and that’s the money they could then take to go out to buy. It’s tied to an incubator because during the 10-year period we’re teaching them about home ownership. … All the money that’s in there earns the same interest rate as the mortgage. If the mortgage is at 5 percent, they’re getting 5 percent on this money. … The key to the whole program is just finding a property where you can build it and rent it, and the rent can cover the cost. And it can be done. It can be done.

Q: When do you think those will come together?

A: If I can put the acquisition portion together, then it’s a question of getting to the city and the state and say: OK, you guys talk about wanting affordable housing, I think I’m going to give you a really good deal. What can you help us with in terms of concessions? The beauty of my projects, if you give a concession it doesn’t go to me, it goes to the tenants. … The start of construction would still be two years out — that’s if I can get agreement on the land this year.

Q: Let’s go through some of your other projects, maybe the most recent, Uncle Billy’s. What struck you about that project?

A: Again, it’s just the idea that you’re closing a hotel, jobs are going to be lost, very good chance once it closes it will not reopen. It just was, OK, we want to go to Hilo, we want to build a hotel in Hilo. Why don’t we just take Uncle Billy’s, even though it’s at the end of its life? … But we feel very confident that we can provide a service, to provide affordable rooms to the local comunity, and locals will benefit from it. A lot of my projects are designed for the local community. I’m not that interested in the upscale market, the tourists.

Q: What was your involvement in lease-to-fee conversions?

A: I pioneered the voluntary method. Had a huge impact and I’m very proud of that because I think it resulted in a lot of properties being sold and being sold early in the process. If we were selling them today, the numbers would be outrageous. I know people thought they were high back then, but in reality they were low.

Today we have a reverse situation. … Rather than the lessees buying it too cheap it has to do with the rent renegotiations where the appraisers have made similar mistakes. They have an appraisal method, extremely accurate, it relies on the market, the market is very clear: 8 percent of land value. But it’s 8 percent of land value based on what the appraiser did yesterday, based on what he did the day before, based on what he did before — not on a free market. … The rate of return should not be 8 (percent), it should be 6 percent today at the highest. It should actually be 3, 4, 5 (percent), but it can’t go lower than 6 in most leases because it says you can’t go below 6. … So I’m thinking of trying to start a program where the lessors start to realize and the appraisers start to realize 8 percent is not accurate and it should be reduced.

Q: What causes that disparity?

A: Hawaii is a very small market and you’ve got to be careful of these distortions — and this was not a deliberate distortion — but it’s just that they started when interest rates were really high giving the 8 percent. Everything dropped, the Japanese bubble burst, then we hit recession after recession. No developer was buying, no developer was building, so there were no market comparables. They ended up relying on market comparables from like the ’90s, which are misleading. So the market needs to adjust.

Q: What other issues are you championing?

A: Right now the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) in Hawaii are tax-free. That’s because of the federal tax law and Hawaii adopts the federal tax law. … Wonderful idea for every state except a small state that has a very small population, but has an extremely appealing real estate market because of tourism and the limited amount of land available. For Hawaii it’s a loser because the amount of exemptions we give will never be close to what we receive because so few of our population own large stakes in REITs. Ala Moana Center pays no taxes, most of our hotels pay no taxes, most of our shopping centers pay no taxes, most of our office buildings pay no taxes. A couple of our developers have set up REITs so when they sell and make millions of dollars, it’s tax free. And the dividends get paid, the taxes paid, but paid in California or some other state. Hawaii gets zero. You’d think our legislators would immediately see it’s just not fair. Our tax rate in Hawaii is so low, it’s not going to scare them away. …

Q: So you’re hoping for a policy change?

A: I think we have a really good governor and I have nothing but respect for that man because he’s done a lot of things and he’s made some unpopular decisions, but he’s being a good governor and I’m hoping he’ll even get behind (changing tax policies for REITs). I’m not as impressed with the (other) politicians. They seem to be agonizing over (REITs). … This is a no-brainer, absolute no-brainer. Yeah, they give you all these threats, they’re going to pull out, they’re not going to invest. … Why should they get the benefit that we don’t give the local people? Why do I pay taxes and they don’t? …

Q: A lot of your focus is on helping locals, but you’ve gone through your own struggles. How did you bounce back?

A: I had a bankruptcy where I lost everything. My house, my car, my wife’s jewelry. No big deal. We earned it all back. I bought my first property when I was 15. I’ve always understood real estate. I love it. It’s fascinating. It’s easy to make money in real estate. Anyone can do it, anyone can be a millionaire in real estate — they just have to do what they do. The problem is most people don’t know how to do it, they don’t know how to get started. … I think that’s why a lot of my real estate career is in the direction of getting local buyers to buy, helping local people get into real estate. I know if they don’t, they’re not going to be able to retire in Hawaii, they won’t be able to stay. Part of our homeless crisis right now, they say they’re going to solve it, but they’re not solving the problem, they’re solving the symptom. The symptom is being homeless. The problem is people do not own real estate. If they owned real estate, they wouldn’t be homeless.

Q: So how do you finance your projects?

A: I was fortunate to have a number of old-time lenders when I started. And they were true risk-takers because a lot of them had started the company. They’d give a loan based on a project, they loaned based on the concept and what you were doing and who you were. … Historically I never used mainland lenders. I only used local lenders. But now the local lenders are just too restrictive. You cannot do anything creative, anything innovative. Their answer is always no. … It’s one of the greatest disappointments.

Q: Any last thoughts?

A: Local people, we all sacrifice to stay here. … On the mainland it’s easy to make money. Here it’s a struggle because the market is so small. … To a certain degree everybody here in Hawaii has made that decision. It’s more important that we stay: the culture, the people, the joys of being here, the quality of life. But our government’s got to figure out how to protect that so we can keep it. … We’re selling paradise with no regard to the locals and what we need and what’s best for us. They have to change their focus. It should all be about us. So I’m running for governor. (Laughs)