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MCCALL:I guess my question on what you saidon the TIAR that was done,
<br />Im not sure whether, I think it was never addressed. But on situations like this,from
<br />what I understand, the general idea is youll be putting multi-family housinghere, rental
<br />housing. It seemsto me what in effect were actually to do is reduce the housing out on
<br />Ocean View, Waikoloa and a number of people who areactually, you know, driving into
<br />Kona to work, or whatever. But Ive never seen, you know, I suppose it requires
<br />conjecture to say that this actually is going to potentially relieve some of the traffic, say,
<br />on Queen K Highway coming in, or coming through Kainaliu, or something. I mean,
<br />Ive never see anything, I suppose thats a little bit too hypothetical to actually put down
<br />in a TIAR. So can you address that in any way?
<br />FUKE:This is Mr. Brian Cook who has a wealth of experience in
<br />homebuilding here in the Kona area, so I just as soon defer it to him.
<br />SPRINGER:And,Mr.Cook,ifyoucouldpleasegiveusyournameandaddress
<br />for the record?
<br />COOK:Yes. My name is Brian Cook. Address is 75-5608 Hienaloli,
<br />Road No. 25, Kailua-Kona.
<br />SPRINGER:Thank you, sir. You may proceed.
<br />COOK:When we first looked at this property, the developers who we had
<br />acquired the property from had it subdivided it into five lots, as Sidney said. They had
<br />played out this proposed, what we call a strip mall, running the whole frontage of
<br />Queen Kaahumanu Highway. We didnt want to create that type of development. We
<br />think our community here, Ive lived here in Kona for over 15 years and been in Hawai i
<br />for 45 years; and in construction and development all these years weve seen a lot of
<br />things done bad and some things done good. When we go in and try to do a project,
<br />weve not motivated by density. Weve motivated by trying to create something thats
<br />needed in our community. Living here ourselves, we see project after project that isnt
<br />really taking care of the concerns of the, of our community.
<br />As a developer, when I first started back in the 1960s, water, sewer and drainage were the
<br />three criteria that you would worry about. As we got into the 70s then the environmental
<br />assessment areas got in; and then coming over to the Big Island, it was the
<br />archaeological, and now it is traffic infrastructure.
<br />So when we looked at this project, we said, if we develop something that is not just
<br />neighborhood-friendly as far as a commercial area, we have been talking to Suffolk who
<br />has the adjacent property, and to create the neighborhood shopping center and the rental
<br />housing project, it takes the two projects together to pay for all the infrastructure to be
<br />developed. If you take a look at, if youre familiar with Kailua-Kona, creating a
<br />neighborhood shopping center like this will benefit projects on the makai side of the road
<br />coming from the south to the north of Kailua circle, you come up to Komohana Kai,
<br />theres Kuakini Makai, and Kahakai, and going mauka, you go from Sunset coming north
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