UH regents
select developers

Teams will negotiate to build
Manoa dorms and the new
campus for West Oahu

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents selected development teams to negotiate with to build a new UH-West Oahu campus, a commercial retail/housing project in Kapolei and the first new dorms at UH-Manoa in 25 years.

Hunt ELP Ltd., a privately owned company based in El Paso, Texas, and its partners were selected for the first phase of the UH-West Oahu project. The $120 million campus will be financed by giving Hunt development rights to up to 320 acres of land next to Kapolei Golf Course, near the campus.

American Campus Communities, a publicly traded student housing company based in Austin, Texas, and its partners were selected to build new dorms at the current sites of Frear and Johnson halls.

Both companies will begin negotiations with the university on the financing and terms of the development. If the negotiations fall through, the university has the option of negotiating with the other development teams, which were not selected.

UH President David McClain said he was "delighted" that both projects are moving forward.

"It's been decades since there's been a new dorm," said Grant Teichman, the incoming Manoa student body president.

"There's a hole in my wall," he added in a phone call from his room at the Hale Lehua dorm. "The decision didn't come a second too soon."

Hunt issued a written statement calling the UH-West Oahu project a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a new kind of university campus."

A selection team, aided by a consultant, recommended Hunt's approval. Jan Yokota, UH director of capital improvements, cited Hunt's willingness to put up an equity stake in the campus and the company's flexibility in methods to finance the project as the reasons why Hunt stood out over five other development proposals for the UH-West Oahu campus.

Hunt has local experience developing Ford Island and military homes on Oahu.

Yokota also said student and faculty housing could be part of the project and that the deal could be structured so the university will be able to keep revenue from the lease of commercial properties as a way to finance the operation and maintenance of the new campus.

She said the university will likely hire consultants, including a project manager and law firms to help with the contract negotiations and the construction of the campus.

But the full details of the project will not be made public until the contract is signed, she said.

Both projects were scheduled to be approved at last month's regents meeting. But after a closed-door session, the regents deferred a vote on both projects.

A selection committee had recommended a team headed by Actus Lend Lease LLC of Honolulu with Allen & O'Hara Development Co. LLC of Memphis, Tenn., for the UH-Manoa dorm project.

However, regent Andres Albano Jr. said regents had concerns about whether Actus had the best project.

Yesterday's regents discussion took place both in executive session and in public, and they voted in open session. UH Associate General Counsel Presley Pang cited the state procurement code and consultation with state attorneys as the reasons for the closed-door session.