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situation and that property came out for bid and as we know, it's history now, it went through
<br /> bankruptcy and everything else. But that ten years, I thought "Wow,"you know, nothing was
<br /> done for Uncle Billy's property or for Country Club, or Reed's Bay. Then when the new bill
<br /> came out I said, "Well I guess maybe now they're going try to do something for us," and
<br /> unfortunately when I analyzed it, I knew Uncle Billy was not going to extend their lease. He had
<br /> reasons and I think was because of his property he had in Kona. And Country Club was
<br /> ineligible completely. There's no way they could get the lease according to any statute on the
<br /> books. The only one that could qualify would be Reed's Bay, and there we sit throughout all
<br /> these years in trying to get our lease. I'm talking to you today for the staff and over our 20
<br /> employees that we have and we fill a void on Banyan Drive. Our hotel is, will always cater to
<br /> the economical traveler. If I can upgrade the building, and the building, initially I submitted an
<br /> application years back, in fact five years back, and that was for $1,171,000 of improvements and
<br /> that would've took care of all of the problems that we had since the Marco Polo fire and all of
<br /> the inspections and the things that I had to go through, we spent almost $200,000 of our money
<br /> in fixing all of these complaints and things and these go back over 20 years because we're a
<br /> grandfathered building in making improvements. And so there we still sit, okay. I have an
<br /> application in to DLNR now, which is over a year old, hasn't been, no notification, no turn
<br /> down, no nothin' and it is for $2,200,000. Now you know, I'm able to get the financing, it isn't
<br /> my money, and this financing sometime is going to go way. You know, we're talking about
<br /> funds and things and improvements and everything, and Reed's Bay has a million dollar view. It
<br /> used to be, I would call it my ten dollar building when I got involved in it, and I moved into that
<br /> building in 1996. And I've had experience as a broker, real estate in Kona, also in Honolulu, in
<br /> timeshare. I used to have a timeshare room. Development, not development but I knew the
<br /> developer and we were in good shape. I spent two years there in that type of business. I have
<br /> the background to turn that building over into a first-class hotel with $2,200,000. And the price
<br /> tag is still gonna go up the longer we wait because it was only $1,171,000 when I was looking at
<br /> making improvements. And I don't have too much more to say. You know, I could make
<br /> complaint—you know, I have a filing cabinet with over two hundred items in there concerning
<br /> Banyan Drive and Legislature and all the bills and everything that has gone on. And all I ask is
<br /> if I can get a consideration to do the upgrade with DLNR, get a lease, then my staff will be
<br /> certainly happy. And we are doing over a million dollars in gross revenue two years already;
<br /> we're into our third year. I expect it to go over $1,700,000. It's not a small business, okay. I'm
<br /> going to rebuild the restaurant that was there that burnt down years and years ago. And I see Mr.
<br /> Heit writing down and figuring how much he can make my lease for this next year.
<br /> Anyway, I don't have much more to say unless you have questions, but it's been a long wait.
<br /> TANIGUCHI: What's the minimum amount of time your lease has to beI mean, the standard
<br /> lease is 55 or 65 years.
<br /> INOUYE: Yeah well, the new bill that came out recently that was passed said that 40 years, is
<br /> what they're asking. But you know, if I can get a letter of recommendation, my, my point is I'd
<br /> like a letter of recommendation from this committee, agency, to DLNR stating that yes, they
<br /> should consider making the lease now this time and frame that we're at in the master plan, if
<br /> we're not going get nowhere. Or if we are going get where, maybe we're at that point where you
<br /> can make that decision that I could actually get a lease. And going from there and doing what I
<br /> have to do.
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<br /> Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency
<br /> September 24,2018 Minutes
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