Developer says he has meeting with company LIHU’E — Honolulu Realtor and developer Peter Savio, the Hilo native who says he’ll emerge nicely from personal bankruptcy as a result of a $6 million O’ahu land sale, remains upbeat also about
Developer says he has meeting with company
LIHU’E — Honolulu Realtor and developer Peter Savio, the Hilo native who says he’ll emerge nicely from personal bankruptcy as a result of a $6 million O’ahu land sale, remains upbeat also about his chances of buying 17,000 acres of Amfac land mauka of Lihu’e and Hanama’ulu.
After four months of trying to get a meeting with Amfac officials to discuss the sale of the parcel formerly known as Lihu’e Plantation, on the market for $26 million, Savio told about 65 interested folks Tuesday night at Lihu’e Kaua’i War Memorial Convention Hall that he has a meeting date with Amfac before the end of this month.
Amfac spokesman Jim Boersema yesterday said he could not confirm such a meeting, and that if one was set up, it would likely again focus on Savio’s ability to come up with the $20 million Savio has offered for the land.
Savio claims he has enough Kaua’i interest to sell all the land, even though of the 17,000 acres maybe only 4,000 to 5,000 is usable for agriculture, and only around 3,000 is relatively level former sugar cane land.
His plan is to buy the land and convert it into something of an agricultural cooperative or condominium to sell parcels now possibly as small as five acres to interested Kaua’i farmers, ranchers, nursery operators and cattlemen.
He said he about 150 people have expressed interest in buying some of the land, though only around 20 percent of those have turned into him proof of their ability to either pay cash or get bank financing for the smaller parcels.
“As a group, we have enough power to do it,” Savio said.
His biggest obstacle, he said, is that people don’t believe Kaua’i farmers, ranchers and cattlemen will buy land from him. Savio said he has had former Kauaians from as far away as New York and Japan express interest in buying some of the smaller parcels, which he estimates will sell for around $7,000 an acre for farmland and around $3,000 an acre for ranch land.
Savio also said Meadow Gold Dairies has asked for information about his plan, possibly to reestablish a dairy on Kaua’i.
Amfac’s biggest fear, he continued, is that Savio won’t be able to make his plan work, leaving Amfac to go through the entire sale process all over again.
Savio said repeatedly Tuesday at the meeting with prospective land buyers that he has financing for the entire $20 million, if necessary, though having commitments from local farmers will mean he won’t have to finance the entire purchase price.
“Amfac agreeing to meet, while a positive step, does not mean we are any closer. It does indicate a willingness to talk and possibly find some common ground and a structure that can meet the seller’s needs as well as the buyer’s group needs,” Savio said.
Savio said Kaua’i County officials have told him the parcel as-is qualifies for around 60 homes, and that the county would also allow one home on each of the smaller parcels whether 10 acres or larger. But county Planning Department director Dee Crowell could only confirm that the larger parcel qualifies for “hundreds” of homes.
Part of the problem in determining the actual number of homes the larger parcel would qualify for is that county maps don’t extend mauka to include the whole parcel. Also, county officials figured the furthest mauka sections would always remain Amfac sugar land, so didn’t accurately survey it, Crowell explained.
The furthest mauka acreage — perhaps half the total acreage — is classified as conservation by state land-use standards, and as mountains and valleys is not suitable for agricultural usage. Savio said the agricultural condominium or cooperative that would make communal decisions about uses on the parcel would own that mauka acreage.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
