High-tech explosion ‘reverses brain drain’

WAIMEA – The U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration’s most successful project in Hawai’i is the West Kauai Technology & Visitors Center here.

That’s the word from A. Leonard Smith, director of the EDA Seattle Regional Office that covers western states including Hawai’i.

On the occasion yesterday of the blessing and groundbreaking of the technology center’s phase II, Smith in written remarks delivered by Gail Fujita, EDA economic development representative for Hawai’i and the outer Pacific, said the EDA is equally impressed with the second phase of development.

By the end of this year, the second phase will house at least five more high-tech businesses already doing business with military contractors and the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands.

“When the concept of Phase II of the Technology Center was first presented, we were impressed. Impressed because Phase I is the most successful EDA project in the state of Hawai’i,” said Fujita, reading Smith’s words.

“And this high-tech center supports high-tech education for youth on Kaua’i, and addresses the needs of the communities it serves. And this project reverses the brain drain, allowing the highly trained, Hawai’i-born young adults to return and work on Kaua’i,” he said.

“We continue to be impressed, and plan to use your vision as a model for other centers built throughout the West Coast,” he said.

The center’s second phase will be built over the next six months, and is scheduled to be constructed before Christmas. The new building has five tenants for five offices waiting to move in.

The Kauai Economic Development Board, which purchased the land along Kaumuali’i Highway for the project from the Kikiaola Land Company, has already moved beyond Phase III (the old C S Wo building at Kukui Grove Center, which will house high-tech government contractor Solipsys), and is well into serious planning for Phase IV and Phase V.

It continues the vision of the late George Kawakami and the ailing Hollis Crozier, who put their heads together after Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992 to explore ways to diversify the island’s economy, said Gary Baldwin of KEDB.

Jennifer Goto Sabas, Hawai’i chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai’i, said high-tech on Kaua’i grew out of the “despair and rubble” that was the aftermath of ‘Iniki. There were a lot of doubters along the way who said an island with an agrarian history of sugar plantations couldn’t be transformed into a high-tech haven.

“We have come a long way, baby,” Sabas said.

Along the way, the island’s high-tech industry helped transform PMRF from a candidate for base closure to perhaps the most important training and technical facility in all the Navy, she said.

The EDA helped, but so did her boss, Inouye.

Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono said technology will allow Hawai’i to stay globally competitive, and will also provide jobs. Student interns present for the groundbreaking are the high-tech workers of the next few years, she added.

The groundbreaking of the second phase marks the “fruition of a lot of people’s dreams,” Hirono said. It tells the world, especially Asia and the Pacific, that Hawai’i is open for business, she concluded.

Baldwin and others pointed out that it was Inouye’s vision and influence that helped make the technology dream a reality, and Hirono and Fujita gave Baldwin some credit as well.

He has been “instrumental” in the establishment of high-technology businesses on Kaua’i, Fujita said. Hirono called Baldwin “a mover and shaker.”

The Rev. Thomas “Butch” Kahawai, senior pastor of Kalaheo Missionary Church, performed the blessing, adding his wish that as well as high technology an even “higher technology” from above be incorporated into phase II.

Phase II should be a place to perpetuate beautiful young and old minds, Kahawai said.

Unlimited Construction Services, Inc. is the project general contractor, and before the end of the year plans to have erected a 10,600-square-foot building on the 11,607-square-foot lot.

Marc Ventura is the project architect, the building is designed to look similar to the first-phase building, and Barry Toy is the project manager for Unlimited.

The construction project carries a budget of around $1.7 million. The entire phase II, including land-acquisition costs, has a budget of $4,598,900, with $2 million from EDA; $1 million from the state; $1.1 million from the individual tenants, for equipment and tenant improvements; and $498,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).