OHA trustee
Waihee steps up
plan to buy
Waimea park

However, trustee Clayton Hee
questions the return
on the land

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By Lisa Asato
Star-Bulletin

Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee John Waihee IV stepped up efforts yesterday to win support for his idea to buy Waimea Falls Park, a North Shore attraction that has been on the market since August.

In his third trip to the park in three weeks, Waihee was joined for a tour yesterday by fellow trustee Rowena Akana, a group of about 15 OHA staff and a Realtor.

While OHA has not made an offer on the 1,875-acre parcel, it is the second agency to express interest in buying the park. The city has drawn up a master plan to buy the park and has set aside $5.2 million in its supplemental budget for its condemnation.

The city may condemn a property by resolution when it deems it necessary for the public interest. In this case, City Councilwoman Rene Mansho, who represents North Shore residents, said the city stepped in fearing a private buyer would shut out the public.

The park's owner, New York businessman Christian Wolffer, put the property up for sale in August for $25 million. Waimea Valley Adventure Park was put under bankruptcy protection in April after the operator filed for Chapter 11 reorganization.

"Waimea park gives us an opportunity to preserve it as we know it and still offer tourists something unique to see." ROWENA AKANA, OHA trustee

Art Rivers, Waimea's guest entertainment manager, told the group yesterday that the park's heyday was in 1989, when annual guests peaked at 750,000. Today, that is down to 250,000.

Waihee said yesterday he would consider pegging OHA's offer at no more than 10 percent above the city's $5.2 million offer, based on the city's property tax assessment.

Trustee Clayton Hee said OHA should buy land to diversify its $325 million portfolio -- currently all stocks and bonds -- but given the park's financial woes, he is not sure it is the right vehicle. He said that based on the city assessment, 10 percent sounds "much too high."

"Purchasing land is a good idea," he said. "In the case of Waimea and any other land, it depends what the price will be. It's obviously not land at any cost, but land at good cost."

Hee also said stocks and bonds normally generate 7 percent to 8 percent returns, and trustees need to determine whether the property over time would yield that kind of dividend. "That's a fundamental question (trustees) should ask themselves," he said.

Trustee Donald Cataluna, who had earlier questioned the viability of the plan, declined to comment yesterday.

Although the community and city now agree on preserving the park as a historical and cultural attraction, "if the complexion of the community should change in 10 to 20 years, it might have a different idea of what the park should be," Waihee said. "Is the city going to do that or stay respectful to Hawaiians? Our standpoint is that OHA would always be for Hawaiians."

Akana agreed, saying, "Waimea park gives us an opportunity to preserve it as we know it and still offer tourists something unique to see. Who can protect it better than Hawaiians?"

Wolffer's representative, Ronald Williams, chief operating officer of Atlantis Adventures, declined to name others interested in buying the park. He did say that OHA is a good fit for the park's cultural and historical aspects.

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Office of Hawaiian Affairs