Unhappy tenant
aims to teleport
his business out
of Kapolei

Craig Landis: Satellite businessman is in a dispute with Campbell Estate

"We are moving to Honolulu, to a location where we will be able to provide broadcast services adjacent to a local station," Landis said, but would not name the station.

Landis alleges health, safety and frequency interference problems with his site on estate land. He claims his complaints have fallen on deaf ears for three years.

Vision Accomplished has been a tenant of the estate's Kapolei Teleport, a sort of uplink-downlink point for various types of satellite transmissions around the world, since 2001. The estate won the World Teleport Association's 2002 Teleport Developer of the Year award for the facility, tucked behind Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park.

Vision Accomplished was courted by Campbell Estate to move from Kakaako and base itself at the Kapolei Teleport, promoted as part of the estate's "e-city" concept, Landis said.

"As far as an e-city, Campbell Estate gets an F," he said.

Campbell Estate is not happy, either, and wants Landis to pay more than $250,000 in what it calls license fees, akin to lease rent, and interest.

Campbell Estate officials say Landis was a satisfied teleport tenant until last year, when it began pressing him for overdue payments.

"I don't think it's unreasonable to expect license fees after nearly four years," said estate spokeswoman Theresia McMurdo. "All of Craig's allegations are not true."

Landis is standing his ground and while he calls litigation "the lowest form of communication," he nonetheless plans to file suit against the estate.

"We have no running water or sewer for a facility that was planned to and now runs 24 hours a day," Landis said. In short, Landis' facility has no, well, facilities. Landis lives 10 minutes away, so he has worked around nature's calls.

"We've discussed a number of violations which we've tried to call to their attention," he said. "They promised they had begun the permit process for the utilities and we're still waiting for those utilities."

Landis' company has been a warehouse tenant at Campbell Industrial Park, on a separate parcel not owned by the estate, since 1999. He said he is current on his lease payments and has a great relationship with the landlord there.

His teleport experience has been different.

"We have paid some rent and ... they wrote off part of that rent due to consistent construction delays -- and as soon as they live up to their promises we will pay for what we get. But right now, unless they want to prorate us and charge us for a parking lot, we'll be happy to let it be decided by the courts," Landis said.

The expectations between licensing agreements for use of the teleport and rental property are very different, said Susan Graham, vice president of Fort Street Investments, an affiliate of Campbell Estate.

"There is running water to the site that would require and has required the tenants to hook up to that water line, based on the contracts they've agreed to," Graham said. Other tenants have installed their infrastructure, such as water and septic tanks, she said.

"He needs to respect what he agreed to," said Graham.

Other tenants include satellite services companies Loral Skynet and Transvision International. Officials from the companies could not be reached for comment.

The estate has notified Landis that he is in default, "so we are going through a process of trying to get that payment," McMurdo said.