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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Owning a single
private island is
so 5 minutes agoWhy own one private island in the South Pacific when one can purchase a 23-island archipelago?
Aurora, or the Conflict Group, is for sale for $25 million. The islands are owned by nine Papua New Guinea-based corporations owned by Luman Nevels, a retired Territory of Hawaii Circuit Court Judge and Hawaii Kai resident.
The pricey potential archipelagical acquisition came to be listed with Hawaii-based Earl Thacker Ltd. because its listing agent, Realtor Mary Ann Nevels, is hizzoner's wife.
The island group has been on the market since the fall and it has not been marked down. Parties from Hawaii and abroad are pursuing a deal, "but nothing's sold until it is closed," she said.
Retired judge Nevels revels when he talks about the islands. "It is unique and primeval. There is nothing else in the world that is like it."
The land area is one-and-a-half-times the size of Monaco, he said. "Of course if you include the sea, it's an enormous area." The lagoon amidst the islands is 5 miles by 12 miles. "The principle distinction of these islands is that there's a deep water lagoon in which any ship in the world can come in. It's a protected area."
The Nevels' ownership has nothing to do with his days on the bench, he said.
"It frankly is a very long story," he said and asked your columnist if she had hours to spare.
In the 1970s he and other investors got together on the purchase of the islands.
"The group of us got together and had wild ideas about how we might develop them. In due course they went by the wayside and I wound up owning them all," he said. Time went by and the wild ideas never materialized, nor did the money to develop them. Some of the ideas are suggested on the islands' Web site at www.conflictislands.com.
Naturally the buyer will not be bound to any development ideas.
"Hopefully they will preserve it in the sense of using it well, doing something creative and that suits the environment," Luman said.
Brand-X unions rally
Members of six unions representing workers at The Honolulu Advertiser are planning to rally on the sidewalk outside the newspaper's offices at noon tomorrow.The event will mark the year that has passed since the unions' contracts with the Advertiser expired. It will also "be the first effort to let the general public know about the problems Advertiser employees are facing," according to a newsletter by the Hawaii Newspaper Guild, covering the Hawaii Newspaper and Printing Trades Council unions.
"We have made significant progress in the negotiations," said Dennis Francis, general manager of the Advertiser, in a statement.
"Given the state's economic picture, the number of unions (and) guilds we are negotiating with simultaneously, and the addition of our new printing facility in Kapolei, the issues we are dealing with are extremely complex and will affect the financial stability of the newspaper for the long term. We certainly respect the right of individuals to protest, but it is a surprise to us that the affected labor unions should purposefully slow down or even jeopardize the process when the two sides, after many negotiating sessions, are not that far apart," he said.
Progress made in the last two weeks could have been made in two days but for the company's tactics, said Wayne Cahill, Guild administrative officer in the newsletter.
Key talks covering a reduced number of pressmen required at the new Kapolei facility must be resolved before negotiations on joint issues for the other unions can proceed, the newsletter said.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com