College planning to put its land to use

The University of Hawaii is reviving plans to lease excess land surrounding its West Oahu campus for commercial development in hopes of both generating revenue and preventing other interests from cashing in on the lucrative real estate.

The university’s continued control over hundreds of undeveloped acres in Kapolei was in limbo for several months earlier this year after lawmakers crafted legislation seeking to yank back ownership of the land given to the university 15 years ago for a campus to serve the Leeward Coast.

Legislators blasted UH for allowing the parcels to sit idle for years while asking for state support for the fledgling Kapolei campus. When pressed for details on how the land would be put to use, university officials had no answers.

The land-grab bills were ultimately shelved, but the university doesn’t want a repeat when the Legislature convenes in a few months.

"That encouraged us to move on a plan," UH President David Lassner said in a recent interview.

The administration and a Board of Regents task group have engaged a consultant to draft a plan for its two Kapolei parcels: 500 acres makai of the H-1 freeway, where the campus sits near the future starting point of the city’s rail line, and 991 acres of undeveloped agricultural land mauka of the freeway.

A new conceptual plan identifies areas for commercial development, campus expansion, agricultural uses and a proposed solar-energy farm. Zoning for the commercial areas would allow a mix of office, retail and residential use around the existing campus.

"The purpose of this activity was really to identify which parcels would get generally used for what uses, coming up with the broad vision for the two parcels, and in particular the makai parcel," Lassner said.

The university plans to enter into long-term leases versus selling off chunks of land.

"At this point we’re not really looking at selling. We don’t think we need to sell land to realize the commercial value, but we’re very interested in using the land to address our financial challenges," Lassner said.

He said the plan will be presented to the full Board of Regents later this month.

"Assuming they approve that, then we would do more detailed planning and a commercial development strategy," Lassner said. "When it comes time to do the actual developments, we would be inviting proposals — this is not something that UH would do ourselves."

The UH-West Oahu campus sits on about 80 acres of the 500-acre makai parcel. UH wants to hold onto about 300 of the acres for the growing campus to expand, which would make it comparable in size to the flagship Manoa campus.

Since opening in fall 2012, UH-West Oahu has seen the highest enrollment growth among the university’s 10 campuses. Enrollment ballooned by 18.8 percent last fall to 2,403 students, and this semester it has grown to nearly 2,700 students.

The school anticipates enrollment to hit 20,000 in the next 20 to 30 years, said Donna Kiyo­saki, UH-West Oahu’s vice chancellor for administration.

"We need to be ready," she said.

The conceptual plan designates 168 acres on the makai parcel for commercial development.

"We probably wouldn’t do big-box retail, but more specialty, mom-and-pop stores, high-density housing, rental apartments, entertainment, restaurants," Lassner said. "With the university there, two (rail) stations, Ho‘o­pili (a 12,000-residence master-planned community) nearby — that will probably inspire some good ideas about what else the area could use."

Kiyosaki added, "We want to do commercial development that the students and faculty and staff will want to gravitate toward."

On the 991 mauka acres, Lassner said UH envisions a utility-size solar farm that could supply the power needs for the Kapolei campus while helping offset energy needs at UH’s other Oahu campuses.

"That land has tricky topo­graphy. We think there’s at least in the range of 250 acres that looks good for (photovoltaic)," he said, adding that agricultural uses would likely take up most of the remaining acreage.

Original plans for the Kapolei campus called for a private developer to help build the UH-West Oahu campus in exchange for development rights on up to 200 acres of the 500-acre site for housing and commercial development.

But that deal fell apart with the collapse of the credit market, and the state sold general obligation bonds in 2010 to pay for the first phase of construction for the campus. The college issued revenue bonds and took out a loan to pay for the rest of the build-out.

"Now we have a campus up and running, and the economy is back, so it seems like the right time to reassess where we are," Lassner said. "If we move ahead, in an environment in which we’re generating revenue, that could help offset future requests from the campus to the state as enrollment expands."

UH-West Oahu currently gets a little more than 50 percent of its budget from tuition.

The regents task group and UH officials have informally been taking the land plan to lawmakers to drum up support.

State Rep. Isaac Choy (D, Manoa-Moiliili), chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, said the proposal is lacking such key details as income projections and a prioritized listing of projects.

"I am looking for a silver bullet, and the plan I saw was so mundane," Choy said. "I think we’re talking about very valuable land, a tremendous opportunity, and I want to see something creative.

"The West Oahu campus has to get fed somehow. Show me something that in phases would accomplish that mission. I think they put this together merely to make sure we don’t take back pieces of land here and there because they haven’t done anything," he said.

Choy suggested UH consider modeling its development efforts after Kame­­ha­meha Schools, the state’s largest private landowner.

"They’re actually supporting an educational institution with land assets," he said.