StarBulletin.com

Gentry, Kamehameha end residential pact


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POSTED: Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Gentry Investment Properties and Kamehameha Schools have ended a more than 20-year-old development agreement that would have brought about 12,000 new homes to Central Oahu's Waiawa.

The project, near the point where the H-1 and H-2 freeways merge, would have been the area's first major residential development in many years. It would have included residential, commercial and industrial uses.

With the dissolution of the 1987 agreement, the Waiawa lands that Gentry had planned to buy will be returned to the trust, where they will remain an important part of Kamehameha's educational endowment.

Gentry and Kamehameha Schools agreed not to comment prematurely on the future of their Waiawa properties; however, they confirmed that they are in discussions “;regarding how the two companies may work together in the future since both own land in the area adjacent to one another.”;

The Central Oahu project was master-planned in the 1980s but was put on hold in the 1990s with the downturn in Hawaii's economy. It was later partially revived when Gentry formed a joint venture with Alexander & Baldwin Properties Inc. to deliver 5,000 homes over 10 years; however, that project received mixed reviews from the community and never got off the ground despite its 2009 target date.

The project would have required significant infrastructure development including interchange work, sites for schools and a land bridge at its entry.