City wants
Harbor Court $15 mil
by Friday

If not, the city will persue
the matter 'by whatever legal
means necessary'

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Harbor Court developers and lenders have until Friday to come up with $15 million, or the city will try to get the money it is owed "by whatever legal means necessary," says Corporation Counsel David Arakawa.

A 1994 agreement between the city and Beam Harbor Venture required the developer to purchase the fee interest on 120 units at Harbor Court by July 31, 1997.

Housing Chairman Andy Mirikitani said during yesterday's committee meeting: "It would seem the corporation counsel would pursue these payments with due diligence."

On April 9, Deputy Corporation Counsel David Laxson wrote to developer Beam Harbor Venture and lender Appollo Hawaii Inc., seeking the payment plus 8.5 percent interest.

Representatives of the developer and the lender say they're working out a response. They refused to say, however, if the money would be paid by Friday.

"We have a developer unable to sell units," said Jonathan Miho, official for the lender, Apollo Hawaii. "I don't know what they expect him to do."

Miho declined to say if the money would be paid by Friday.

The city last month got a $2.7 million cashier's check from the lender for commercial lease rents due, a separate delinquency from the lease-to-fee money.

"They have no sensitivity to the the futileness of the economy we're working in today," said Mike McCormack, a partner in Beam Harbor Venture.

McCormack said the developers and lenders tried to settle their dispute last year and that the compromise included giving the city title to Queen's Court, the vacant companion business building across Bethel Street from Harbor Court.

"I believe the administration felt they could never convince the Council of that," McCormack said when asked why the proposal was dropped. "That it was too creative for the Council to consider."

McCormack said he and his lenders intend to pay the money at some point.

The Housing Committee was told by Housing Development Branch Chief Michael Shiroma that there no were procedures to monitor Harbor Court money coming into the city, nor were there any conditions for penalizing the developers if payments weren't made on time.

He said he'd been told to process receipts from Harbor Court.

Other revenue-generating projects also aren't closely monitored, Shiroma said. Housing Department staff for years has advocated standard operating procedures for receivables, he said.