2018-07-25 BDHRA Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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JACOBSON: Thank you for having this meeting so that we can all share with you how we feel about Banyan Drive. I am with Banyan Drive Country Club Hawaii at 121 Banyan Drive. We understand the goal of high-end resort hotel magnet to bring tourist dollars to Hilo and wants to participate as a resort hotel. The bones and architecture and management of a good structure already exist. Buildings can last if maintained so the job and cost of maintaining and revenue for maintaining are the issue. We understand that the lower cost residential is not the vision for Banyan Drive, it was never our vision for Banyan Drive. We hope you understand that the botched March 15, 2015, land lease termination left us with a lot of debt, over $800,000. We had 50 percent squatters, 97 delinquents because no one thought that the building would remain open so pretty much everyone stopped paying, only to find that we could go on, we could keep it open, and we could start building. We had no choice at the time but to rent to the people that were on the island that needed a place to live. The cost to tear down Country Club is an estimated eight to ten million, but due to the water level environment rules, no rebuild is possible. Therefore the ten million cost of the small green space is unrealistic and uneconomic. The renters at Country Club want to remain, continue to renovate the building, increase our resort traveler's portion of occupancy towards 100 percent. Currently 55 rental units of the 141 total rental units are mainland travelers who contribute real money to the Hilo economy, and with a reasonable time period could contribute much more. We understand it will take a few years to work towards higher resort hotel status, but from the beginning and from the 2015 disaster to the present, County Club has maintained the hotel function and works daily to improve. Country Club now provides snowbird mainland and oriental tourists a moderate but improving rental rate hotel destination. And Country Club will upgrade as tourist market demand provides economic opportunity. The Country Club has been contacted by Hawaii County on behalf of FEMA, East Hawaii lava victims are living in tents and school gyms and corridors. Available housing for lava victims is fully occupied. Country Club has 16 units at this time which are in need of serious renovation, but could be available to those lava victims if investment money were available for renovation. Country Club is on a possible 30-day termination DLNR special permit so FEMA and SBA and banks cannot loan for unit renovation investments. We would need to repay that in 30 days and that's an impossible repayment plan schedule period. Country Club asks that Banyan Drive Redevelopment Authority [sic] put its weight behind Country Club being issued a new reasonable time duration lease for investment repayment or reimbursement if the lease goes to others. Please appreciate that Country Club pays land lease money to DLNR and would pay more if Country Club could obtain investment money to renovate the units beyond the 30-day special permit potential termination. An empty 121 Banyan Drive building would have squatters and security costs, but no revenue flow. Country Club management is helping build toward the future, and with the Banyan Drive Redevelopment backing can work towards maintaining a much better building for the community as a whole. Country Club would like to repaint, redecorate the interior, operate as a moderate resort hotel as the tourist dollar market permits. Country Club wants to renovate its building infrastructure for Page 2 of 17 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency July 25,2018 Minutes