OHA may partner The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is being asked to become the majority owner of a new local manufactured-housing plant that provides affordable, prefabricated homes to native Hawaiians and others.
in prefab housing
OHA is being asked to invest
$550,000 for a 55 percent
share in Quality HomesBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comOrganizers say there is a statewide need for quality single-family homes that cost below $100,000, especially to help house the nearly 17,000 people on the Hawaiian Homes waiting list and to provide affordable options for homesteaders who cannot afford to build homes on their leased residential lots.
Also, the partnership allows OHA to use some of its $325 million trust for economic development ventures. Rowena Akana, an OHA trustee for the past 10 years, said the agency has discussed ways it could generate revenue, but that's all.
"It's an opportunity for us to get in on the ground floor, provided there are other people who will partner with us," Akana said.
"I think for the time being we should be open to this kind of economic development, because if not for us, then whom?" she said.
Quality Homes of the Pacific, a Hawaii limited liability company created this spring, is proposing OHA invest $550,000 in return for about 55 percent of the share in the company.
The other majority stockholder in the start-up is Local 368 of the Laborers' International Union of North America. The local labor union has conditionally committed $250,000 for 25 percent interest in the company, with an eye toward building homes for its own members.
Two others with 10 percent interest each in Quality Homes are the Hawaiian Community Development Board, a native nonprofit group, and MH Consultants LCC, which is headed by two men who serve as officers for the company.
The company would produce steel-framed homes at a warehouse at Campbell Industrial Park. These homes will be built in large sections and shipped to locations statewide where the homes would be assembled.
As proposed in its business plan, Alu Like Inc., which provides job training for native Hawaiians, would provide some of the start-up work force.
At full capacity, the plant will produce 500 homes per year with a work force of at least 100, said attorney Kali Watson, Quality Homes chairman and former chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission.
Watson, who is also president of the Hawaiian Community Development Board, said the idea for a local manufactured-housing plant came out of a need to find more affordable and quicker ways to produce quality homes for native Hawaiians.
Consultants recommended prefabricated housing, which is popular on the mainland and could be produced locally for about $50 per square foot, compared with about $100 per square foot and more it now costs for site-built homes in Hawaii. It is also quicker to build, Watson added.
Andy Karsten of Karsten Homes of Sacramento, Calif., a manufactured-home builder, will serve as chief executive officer of Quality Homes. He will oversee the setup of the manufacturing plant, the hiring and training of employees, the installation and operation of equipment, and quality control standards.
Consultant Robert Wilden of Wilden and Associates in Virginia, an expert on low-income housing who served on the National Commission on Manufactured Housing, will serve as chief operations officer for Quality Homes. His primary job will be to work with the state to secure federal Housing and Urban Development inspection and approval.
Both men will provide services through MH Consultants.
While mainland experts are involved, Watson stressed Quality Homes is a local company.
"What I wanted was not necessarily a mainland company coming to Hawaii trying to set up a plant, but more a plant that was set up by, for and controlled by the locals and particularly the native Hawaiians," Watson said.
On Friday, OHA's Budget Committee will vote on the partnership, which has been approved by OHA's Policy Committee.
Watson said the company hopes for final approval next month by the full board of trustees. That is because Quality Homes has tentatively agreed to provide 45 prefabricated housing shells to Menehune Development Corp. starting in July 2002.
Menehune Development is building the third phase of a self-help homestead project in the Villages of Kapolei. The builder needs assurances from the company by the end of September that it can deliver those manufactured homes.
Qualified homesteaders are expected to pay about $70,000 for those homes. Watson said the Kapolei contract is a sensible pilot project for the company, and he hopes it will be successful.
"A three-bedroom, two-bath house for $70,000 in Kapolei? Where are you going to beat that?" he said.
OHA Special
Rice vs. Cayetano arguments
Rice vs. Cayetano decision
Holo I Mua: Sovereignty Roundtable
