By TOM CALLIS By TOM CALLIS ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald staff writer Seven years have passed since a veterans group hoping to build a center and apartment complex for the nation’s heroes signed a land lease with Hawaii County. That lease expired
By TOM CALLIS
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Seven years have passed since a veterans group hoping to build a center and apartment complex for the nation’s heroes signed a land lease with Hawaii County.
That lease expired two years ago and to date nothing has been built.
But Bob Williams, chairman of Hawaii Island Veterans Memorial Inc., the group behind the project, said it is giving it one more shot.
The group is seeking renewal of the lease, covering 4.9 acres of vacant land across from Waiakea High School in Hilo, a request the Hawaii County Council will consider today.
“We’ll take a one-time, five-year (lease),” he said. “If we can’t build something, by God we will pack our bags and head home.”
Williams said the group was on its way to starting the project after signing the initial lease at 84 W. Kawili St. but ran into a brick wall when the recession hit in 2008.
The center, complete with about 100 apartments, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs office and a multipurpose building, was estimated to cost $32 million.
The county and state had each pledged $500,000, Williams said, but that money dried up when tax revenue began to drop.
Kona Councilwoman Brenda Ford introduced the resolution that the council will consider today.
Though the group has had some trouble getting started, she said she thinks it’s important that the county supports those who served.
“I support anything that will help our veterans,” she said.
If the lease is approved, Williams said the group should be able to begin construction of a $3.1 million veterans’ center, funding for which would likely come from the federal EB-5 program.
That program is funded by foreign investors seeking residency status.
“We’re told we qualify,” he said.
The center would include a medical clinic for veterans now located near Hilo Medical Center as well as other services.
“We want to provide a whole range of services,” he said. “A one-stop shop.”
But the housing would have to wait until more funds are secured.
The group had proposed building a $24 million housing complex of 96 to 110 units. The one- and two-bedroom units would be offered to veterans at least 62 years old or their surviving spouses.
Williams said the group didn’t seek a lease renewal two years ago because it was in discussions with the University of Hawaii at Hilo which expressed interest in the property.
He said the university had proposed using some of the property and, in exchange, the group could get use of vacant land near the university along the Waiakea Stream.
Gerald De Mello, director of university relations, said that may had been discussed but added that the university wasn’t in a position to make a deal since it doesn’t yet have full control of that property.
That land includes 38 acres the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has set aside for future use by the university, he said, but UH-Hilo does not have a lease agreement.
The land isn’t currently accessible. That will change with the extension of Kapiolani Street, planned for August 2013.
De Mello said the university remains interested in the Kawili Street property, which could be used for parking or housing, among other uses, but it won’t make a proposal to the county unless the veterans project fails.
“We’d definitely be interested” in the future, he said.
“We’re in the queue.”
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
