THE national credit crisis is reverberating around the future Kapolei campus the the University of Hawaii at West Oahu, but it should not cause delays. The company that promised to buy land for private development close to the campus has financial problems, which means UH should be prepared to use a backup plan.

Hunt Companies Inc. announced last week that it is pulling out of a $133 million housing project in El Paso, Texas, where it is based, because of “;increasingly dramatic changes in the national and local credit and housing projects”; that has prevented it from getting bank financing, according to the El Paso Times.

Hunt has promised to buy 298 acres of state land around the Kapolei campus for $100.1 million, where it plans to build up to 2,631 single-family and multifamily housing units, plus a retail and commercial complex. UH-West Oahu has planned to use the proceeds to pay for roads, water and electrical infrastructure and construction of the first five buildings on campus.

Hunt signed an agreement more than a year ago to buy the land, but the deal will not be closed until the City Council rezones the land for residential and commercial development. A Council hearing on the zoning change is scheduled tomorrow.

Gene Awakuni, the UH-West Oahu, says the university has a plan for selling about 50 acres of prime commercial land along the North-South Road and issue special revenue bonds to complete at least the infrastructure and a couple buildings in case the Hunt agreement evaporates. If that happens, Awakuni is confident of enough money for a scaled-down campus.