2 groups win bids
on Fong plantationA real estate agent and Fong
family members split parcels
In two separate spirited auctions yesterday, most of Sen. Hiram Fong's Plantation & Gardens in Punaluu was sold, with a half-interest in the preservation-zone area going to a Honolulu real estate agent and the tourism and education garden part going to members of the former senator's family.
After active bidding, which included an unsuccessful effort by a Polynesian hui, half of the undivided fee ownership of 508 acres of untouched and largely inaccessible land was sold to real estate agent Susan Lins for $210,000.
The lease for the activity center and botanical gardens, which covers the main entertainment and catering center, was sold to a partnership formed last week by Hiram Fong Sr.'s youngest son, Rodney, and his wife, Patsy, both of whom live and work on the property. Patsy is the manager and Rodney is the assistant manager.
That group, Grand "C" LLC, successfully bid $185,000 for the lease of two parcels totaling 301 acres.
Lins, an agent with Abe Lee Realty, said she does not know what she will do with the preservation property, and she is aware that its use is very limited, but as an investor she thought it was a good deal.
"Maybe we can use it for hunting," she said, since her father used to hunt pigs in the area. Other uses might be hiking, and she might decide to resell it at a later date, she said. "I'm an investor," Lins said after the auction was held in a Circuit Court hallway.
Hawaii investor Jere Henderson, who had won the preservation property half-interest for $35,000 in an auction Oct. 1, participated in the bidding after the auction was reopened yesterday morning by Circuit Judge Karen Blondin.
He kicked off the bidding for the 50 percent share of the undivided fee-simple interest in the preservation land with the minimum required bid of $36,750.
That was after attorney Clyde Umebayashi, the court-appointed commissioner handling the sale under a Bank of Hawaii foreclosure action against the former senator and his family, cautioned that all that was being offered was half of the undivided fee interest.
The 508 acres is not only zoned preservation, meaning very little can be done with it, but it also will be half-owned by the Fong family, Umebayashi cautioned.
A hui of Hawaiian, Samoan, Tongan and other representatives of Polynesian culture entered the bidding after gathering personal checks and cash to come up with the 10 percent down payment they might need to make.
Honolulu attorney Nathan Aipa, representing the group Hui Kaalaea/Manuia Malae, said nearly 100 people were taking part, with the aim of restoring the land, nurturing its streams and waterfalls, and maintaining an ancient Hawaiian style of agriculture and maintaining the land.
The group also wanted to build a traditional Polynesian ceremonial meetinghouse there, he said.
As the bidding rose, however, spurred mostly by increasing offers from Henderson, Bill Cottle -- who declined to identify himself in detail -- and Elizabeth Buyers, wife of businessman J.W.A. "Doc" Buyers and a supporter of Hawaiian culture and agriculture, the hui ran out of steam.
Cottle, Henderson and Buyers kept topping each other, but the last Lins bid of $210,000 had no toppers.
Both deals come with strings attached. For example, a Fong family letter on file in the foreclosure action says three houses in the 301-acre parcel are not included in the sale. Umebayashi, the court-appointed commissioner in the foreclosure sale, told prospective bidders that the claim over the houses may be something they will have to sort out later, perhaps in court.
The plantation headquarters property also comes with a requirement that the facilities continue to be operated as an educational botanical garden center, Umebayashi told bidders.
He also told bidders that all they would be buying would be just short of 18 years' leasehold rights to the headquarters property, while the land would continue to be owned by the former Sen. Fong, now 97, and his family.
As for the bigger property, which has preservation status that means very little can be done with it, Umebayashi warned that he cannot even guarantee a buyer's access to the property.
Punaluu taro leaf farmer Leonard Wong and his son Allen, who had successfully bid $70,000 for the tourist facility and surrounding gardens in an Oct. 1 auction, did not take part in the bidding yesterday.
After the court hearing, Hiram Fong Jr., a former city councilman and the senator's oldest son, chatted with Lins and the members of the Polynesian hui and talked about possible cooperation.
"We're going to have to work with the new owners," he said. "There is going to have to be a cooperative effort."
Fong said his father has been paying close attention to the proceedings. Fong said he is interested in cooperating any way he can to further his father's main interest, preserving the land.
Hiram Fong Sr., wife Ellen and several family trusts are in a federal bankruptcy case, having filed in March to keep creditors at bay in the midst of a family financial squabble.
Fong Jr. separately also is in bankruptcy. Yesterday's state-court auction was allowed by the federal Bankruptcy Court, aside from the bankruptcy proceeding, after Bank of Hawaii brought a state foreclosure case against the plantation and gardens to recover an unpaid debt of about $700,000.
The bank did not bid at the auctions. Judge Blondin confirmed the sales and told the parties they have 35 days to conclude the transactions. Umebayashi said that if either buyer does not come up with the money, the deal will go to the next-highest bidder in each auction.
