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IN AND AROUND THE CAPITOL
Maui attracting
By Jean Christensen
high-tech firms
Associated PressWhen a Japanese biotechnology company went looking for a sunny spot in the United States to start an algae farm, its executives did not give the 50th state much thought.
But during a stopover on Maui after visits to California and Arizona, Micro Gaia Co. Ltd. officials saw the sun-splashed Valley Isle in a more lucrative light.
The selling points: consistently warm weather, abundant fresh water and assurances from local leaders the company would quickly gain access to the land and technological resources it needed.
"What just complemented our decision was the support of the local government," said Mark Day, chief financial officer of Micro Gaia Inc., a new Hawaii subsidiary. "Mayor (James) Apana was very supportive and believed that our project was exactly the type of business he was looking for to support his agenda of bringing more high tech into Maui."
Within five months of their first contact with Maui leaders, Micro Gaia executives broke ground this month on a 20-acre microalgae production facility at the Maui Research & Technology Park in Kihei, 98 miles east of Honolulu.
Two miles inland from one of the world's most popular resort destinations, the 415 acres of former ranch land now grow high-technology firms. The park's tenants employ about 350 people.
The 6-year-old park houses more than 30 companies and government agencies taking advantage of its sophisticated global networks, prime location in the Pacific Rim and a supercomputer listed among the fastest few dozen in existence.
Not to mention tax incentives.
Hawaii's Legislature last year approved a six-year moratorium on special taxes on e-commerce, along with tax exemptions for stock options and royalties derived from patents and copyrights, and income tax credits equal to 10 percent of the investment, up to $500,000.
Micro Gaia also used the speedy permitting process created for facilities in the Maui park.
It's all part of a strategy to attract new, environmentally friendly businesses to ease Hawaii's growing dependency on tourism as agriculture wanes and the military pares down its island presence.
The challenge for Maui officials is to make Hawaii's second-largest island known as more than just a vacation destination.
"People only think of it as a sun-and-fun place, and not a serious place to do business," said Rosalyn Baker, coordinator of Maui County's Office of Economic Development.
But instead of downplaying the island's ample leisure opportunities, they're touting them in pitches to stressed-out Internet company executives in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.
"There's a lot that we're hearing in terms of quality of life in Silicon Valley that's making a location like Maui even more attractive," said Jeanne Skog, president and chief executive of the Maui Economic Development Board.
"We can persuade them that they can do the kind of tech that they'd like to do, but in a much healthier environment."
After a slow start, business is picking up at the high-tech park, which looks more like a sparse college campus than a strip mall.
Skog said managers want to add two buildings to the four already there to accommodate new tenants.
Also, the Maui High Performance Computing Center located within the park recently upgraded its supercomputer, allowing for more commercial users.
To the Japan-reared Day, 32, the island's fiber-optic-rich environment came as a surprise.
"It was a spinoff of my original image of Maui being an island paradise," he said. "It was just all the more better to live in a paradise with such a high-tech infrastructure."
The downside: "It's frustrating, in a way, watching tourists going to the beach while you're driving to work."
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