2018-02-01 Hearing Transcript - HI Brewery SPP 842

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FUKE: Sure. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Commission. My name is Sidney Fuke. I'm a planning consultant. I'm here representing or speaking on behalf of the Applicant, Hawaii Brewery Development Co. The Applicant would have been here except that he's currently seeking out other investors right now. I think I appeared before this Commission maybe a few months ago on a rezoning application that he had some interest in near this area, and at that time, I had noted and I would like to also note again that the Applicant has had extensive experience in the food and beverage industry, especially, you know, he was the founder of Blue Moon, Kai Vodka, and several other, and also Hawaiian, Hawaiian Springs, which this Special Permit affects a portion of it. In partial answer to the question that— by the way, first, the staff's report as always is comprehensive, and the recommendations and the condition was reviewed. They were reviewed by the Applicant, and he found them to be acceptable. Relative to the question that, you know, you've raised, I think that if you're just dealing like with a maybe a smaller area, and if this property were not subdivided, then probably the issue that, you know, for time extension would not really be present because it's not like you're dealing with a 13- or 14 -acre site that nothing has happened. You know, on this property actually, you know, you had Hawaiian Springs, and Hawaiian Springs although it, it's gonna, it's morphed into something, different business but it's still a bottling operation, it's still there, and that was granted pursuant to the original Special Permit. The owner, because he was having difficulty in attracting a tenant for the balance of the property, the thought process was that if you had smaller properties, maybe like two or three acres in size, then it becomes a little bit more marketable to attract, you know, potential vendors; and, as a result, the property was subdivided, created. The same, you know, thirteen or fourteen acres was then subdivided into four lots. One lot right now, as the staff has indicated, is the site of the Hawaiian Springs. The other lot, right now, was sold, and on that property, there is a well that was recently dug, and I think that well today has like about a 360,000 -gallon per day capacity, so the plan for that owner is to kind of fully develop that and have something operational whether it's going to be another water company or some kind of distillery. It's really going to be up to that new property owner, but my understanding based on my discussions with the Applicant is that hopefully that project will come on line in 2019. So, I think that, in this particular situation, it's a project that's—and I was just kind of sharing this with Maija and maybe I, but I'll just say it. It's a project where like it's too late to abort. You know, because it's like you're about like 4 or 5 months pregnant already. You know, you're kind of like beyond that stage of abortion because you've already started the process and so what the Applicant is hoping is that the Commission would favorably consider this extension largely so that you can get the project to full term, and sometimes it will take a little longer than normal, but essentially, I would think like within the next two years, you'll probably have another project completed, and once that project is completed, then it starts to trigger, timetable trigger for the third lot and the fourth lot, so, I would hope that, you know, you'll have like this so called agronomy [sic], what do you call that—this synergy working so that once you have another project going then, you know, it just generates an interest in that area. So, we ask for your support on this. EXHIBIT A 4