Governor denies role in
Kakaako project’s demise

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

Gov. Ben Cayetano has refuted charges that he interfered in the recent decision by the Hawaii Community Development Authority to kill a proposed Kakaako waterfront project headed by businessman D.G. "Andy" Anderson.

As for accusations of back-room politics, the governor said it was Anderson who was "calling in all the chips" in his unsuccessful bid to get his $138 million retail complex approved by the agency, which oversees state land development in Kakaako.

"My position was the authority would decide it and they decided," Cayetano said yesterday.

"He was supposed to come up and meet some of the conditions that they asked for and he didn't. So if anyone is to blame for the failure or the rejection of the project, it's Andy Anderson himself."

Cayetano's comments came after Anderson published an open letter yesterday in Honolulu newspapers accusing Cayetano of misleading Anderson into believing he had his support.

The project was killed by a 7-2 vote on Dec. 3. At the authority's meeting, Anderson accused members of personal bias against his project and challenged their findings in detail.

In his open letter, Anderson said he was urged at least twice by Cayetano Cabinet members to continue the approval process. He said the project would have generated 2,600 new jobs and an estimated $18 million a year in new taxes.

Anderson also attributed his defeat to the fact that he didn't hire contractor Dennis Mitsunaga as a consultant, as repeatedly recommended by Cayetano administration officials.

"I guess I wanted to believe that maybe -- just maybe -- your administration had discarded the obvious blatant politics of the past," Anderson wrote.

Cayetano said Anderson knew he didn't like the project's proposed Ferris wheel and carousel, but stated he did not interfere in the authority's decision. In fact, Cayetano said he helped Anderson with a project in Kona a year and a half ago when the state Department of Land and Natural Resources halted work after bones were discovered at the site.

"So he called me. 'Ben, can you help me?' And we helped him and worked a comprise out," the governor said. "I guess I was his friend then, you know, but when you disagree with the guy then you become an enemy ... So I wish he would stop whining and crying."

Despite any possible anti-business message being sent to the mainland because of the rejection, Cayetano said the state should not have to approve any business venture that is not conducive to the environment and the vision of what Hawaii should be.

"If tomorrow General Motors wanted to come here and build an auto manufacturing plant, I'd be against it because it doesn't fit in," he said. "And I think that people would have to accept that."