UH picks developer for West Oahu project

The University of Hawaii has selected a master developer to begin negotiating the planned build-out of more than 180 acres of vacant land next to the UH-West Oahu campus in Kapolei.

The university wants to lease the site for mixed-use development to help support the growing campus — where enrollment has increased every year since opening in 2012 — and enhance the university experience for students, faculty and staff.

UH began soliciting interest from developers in late 2015, and, following a request for business proposals, a selection committee recently deemed a partnership between development firms Hunt Cos. and Stanford Carr Development the most qualified to move into exclusive negotiations for a long-term master development agreement for the project.

The partnership was chosen from among seven entities that responded to an initial request for qualifications seeking a master developer for the project.

“While this is the critical first step and recognizes the desire on the part of UH to pursue the build-out of a university village and other mixed-use developments, there are still many details to be worked out,” UH President David Lassner said in a progress report last week to the Board of Regents.

Lassner said the so-called exclusive negotiations phase is expected to take 12 to 18 months “because it solidifies the scope and timing of development phases, as well as financial commitments.” If a master development agreement and ground lease are reached, the plan would go before the regents for approval.

Leveraging the vacant land around UH West Oahu to help subsidize campus operations has long been a part of the university’s vision.

UH controls a total of 500 acres, donated by the former James Campbell Estate, where the existing 80-acre campus sits near the starting point of the city’s rail line. University officials have said UH wants to hold onto about 300 acres for the campus to expand, which would make it comparable in size to the flagship Manoa campus.

The development site — which UH is calling University Village — is a 183-acre parcel that runs east of the campus, along Kualakai Parkway. Under existing zoning, most of the acreage is poised for a broad range of uses, allowing for development possibilities such as market-rate housing for students, faculty and seniors as well as affordable housing; retail and commercial activities; recreational and sports facilities; and schools and parks.

“We would like to have it as an income generator to help support growth and operations at West Oahu,” Carleton Ching, director of land development for the UH system, said in an interview. “It would be a novel approach to financing UH programs.”

The university system currently gets roughly one-third of its budget from tuition and fees, a third from the state and a third from other university-sourced revenues such as grants and contracts.

Unlike the Manoa campus, which is landlocked between other landowners, the university has an opportunity in Kapolei to help shape the community surrounding the West Oahu campus.

“If you can imagine what UH Manoa would be if the university controlled Moiliili and all that commercial development, if that was an integrated commercial-retail component woven into the campus, that’s the chance we have now with UH West Oahu,” Ching said. “It’s green-field development, wide open. It’s a great chance to see what can be done. And, of course, our motive is … how does it improve our campus, and how is it compatible for our campus?”

UH West Oahu, which serves about 2,700 students, previously operated out of portables next to Leeward Community College. UH late last year held a groundbreaking ceremony for what will be the sixth building on the Kapolei campus. At full capacity the university’s strategic plan calls for eventually accommodating 20,000 students.

The anticipated continued growth in students and the campus’ close proximity to two future Honolulu rail stations, D.R. Horton’s 11,750-home master-planned community, Ho‘opili, and other developments make the project site attractive.

Ching acknowledged that a project of this size — 180 acres — is ambitious. But he said the area has undergone significant changes since a developer was last eyeing the site a decade ago.

Hunt, half of the selected partnership for the University Village project, initially was expected to help finance and build the campus in exchange for development rights to up to 200 acres for housing and retail projects. But that agreement fell apart in 2008 after the credit markets collapsed.

“A lot of things have changed in that area,” Ching said, citing new roadways, the Kroc Center community center and the newly opened Ka Makana Ali‘i shopping center as examples. “Momentum is growing. … There’s a lot of exciting things happening in the region. We need to be patient with this because the evolution of a campus and a community takes time.”