Modifications to the city’s financial relief program for small businesses negatively affected by construction of the over-$10 billion Skyline project to Kakaako have been adopted.
The Honolulu City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to pass Bill 31, which increases the maximum allowed annual revenue for affected small businesses to $1 million, up from $750,000, under the city’s transit construction mitigation fund, or TCMF, grant program.
The program, originally signed into law by Mayor Rick Blangiardi in 2024, was supposed to individually award any struggling, eligible business located along the rail corridor into downtown Honolulu with a $10,000 grant.
But only a few grants — out of the dozens of applications received by the city thus far — were actually awarded, city officials assert.
“Five awards of $10,000 have been paid,” Ryan Wilson, a city spokesperson, previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Wilson noted the city had received 34 applications submitted by local businesses. Of those, 15 applications were deemed ineligible. And 19 applications were returned for revision.
To date, six applications were awarded — one on first submission, five on second submission, he said.
“The sixth business owner has not returned multiple calls and emails from the city,” Wilson said previously. “A letter will also be sent to the business owner providing a deadline to comply with the Hawaii Compliance Express (HCE) certificate requirement, or the award will be terminated.”
In March, Council members Radiant Cordero and Tyler Dos Santos-Tam offered new legislation to revamp the program.
As adopted, Bill 31 will remove the program’s number of employees limit, previously locked at 15 or fewer workers; and require the applicant business to have opened at least 12 months prior to the start of any rail project construction within the transit construction mitigation zone in which the business is physically located, as determined by the city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services director.
Previously, a grant applicant’s business had to be open for business at their current physical location before Jan. 1, 2022.
“The expansion of eligibility for the (TCMF) shows our commitment to making assistance more accessible and inclusive, allowing more small- and medium-sized businesses to receive the support they need,” Dos Santos-Tam said in a statement. “Rail project construction can create significant disruptions that impact day-to-day operations, and this bill helps ease those burdens so businesses can continue to serve their customers and maintain their employees.”
Andrew Min, of family-owned Min Plastics &Supply Inc. at 921 Kaamahu Place in Iwilei, said his business did not apply to the city’s grant program for a number of reasons — among them, the 75-year-old company’s proximity to the rail line’s route on nearby Dillingham Boulevard.
“I think we are on the opposite side of the street,” Min told the Star-Advertiser after the meeting. “So the grant covers the area adjacent to Dillingham, like one block off, so we’re on the part that’s not covered.”
He also noted his family’s company also generates more than $1 million in revenue each year. “So we make more than what’s covered,” he said.
But Min claimed he’s glad the city offered financial relief to at least some eligible small businesses, and hoped they will continue to do so.
“From what I heard not many companies were eligible for it so they were revising it to include more people,” he said. “But even at $1 million we’re still not captured.”
Meanwhile, Min said rail construction along nearby Dillingham Boulevard does impact his family’s company.
“It’s definitely increased the frustration with customers coming in and out because access to coming in, they have to go around through Costco, turn around and come back,” he said, adding access to company’s street address can only be gained via Dillingham. “And only from the eastbound direction because there’s no left turn in the westbound direction.”
He noted the city could think about using budgeted funds to redo the routing of traffic along Dillingham Boulevard “to allow better access.”
“And I think that would probably have more impact with less money,” Min said.
Anthony Han, owner of Soul Chicken and Bliss Lounge on the 1000 block of Dillingham Boulevard, confirmed the city approved his $10,000 grant application earlier this year. He received a check in the mail in April.
But Han previously told the Star-Advertiser his business currently owes $60,000 in unpaid rent. “I have another debt around $45,000,” he asserted.
“It’s not enough though,” Han claimed of the awarded grant, “the cost of everything went up.”
In January, the city started offering $10,000 grants to applicant businesses located near the rail line.
At the time, TCMF grants were to be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, based on authorized and available funding for the program.
But by early February, the city had to extend the time to submit applications.
That month, the Mayor’s Office said the extension — to Feb. 21 — was due to TCMF grant applicants not properly filing business documentation with the city.
“Many of the applications that were submitted to the portal needed to be returned to applicants for revisions, especially because they lacked the required documentation,” Ian Scheuring, the mayor’s deputy communications director, previously told the Star-
Advertiser.
He noted errors led to applicants being denied grant funding.
“The city has received numerous applications for the (TCMF) program that did not qualify, or were not in compliance with the rules of the program and were rejected,” Scheuring said
previously.
According to the city, the total dollar amount spent on this program so far includes $50,000 for the five $10,000 awards; $13,585 for the program’s one-year payment toward its information management system; and $967.94 to publish legal notices regarding administrative rules hearings on this city-run program.
