WAIMEA – There’s no slowing down high-technology growth on Kaua’i, said Dr. Philip Bossert, executive director of the state’s High Technology Development Corporation. The opening yesterday and nearly simultaneous full occupancy of the West Kaua’i Technology Center Phase II here
WAIMEA – There’s no slowing down high-technology growth on Kaua’i, said Dr. Philip Bossert, executive director of the state’s High Technology Development Corporation.
The opening yesterday and nearly simultaneous full occupancy of the West Kaua’i Technology Center Phase II here is testament to that growth, he said.
“We’re very happy to see something like this in the state,” said Bossert. The corporation contributed $1 million toward the project.
And while many speakers discussed the vision necessary to move projects like the technology center forward, Bossert reminded the audience that it takes a team to implement the vision.
That team included representatives of the Kaua’i Economic Development Board (KEDB), state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, high-technology companies, and U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and his staff, Bossert added.
Matilda “Mattie” Yoshioka, KEDB managing director, welcomed around 70 people to the dedication and blessing.
Then the rest of the alphabet moved in. Occupying three of the four available offices are DSR, SAIC and MIT. That’s Digital Systems Resources, Scientific Applications International Corporation, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratories.
The race is on for a fourth and final tenant, with representatives of many firms in negotiations with KEDB representatives for the last available office in phase two present at yesterday’s blessing.
“Whoever brings in the money first, gang, gets the space,” Yoshioka said.
Unlimited Construction completed the building in less than a year, and speakers including Yoshioka and Gail Fujita of the federal Economic Development Administration credited the work of Gary Baldwin in getting the building started.
“He is the person that got this building built,” said Yoshioka. Baldwin had a “vision” for this project and the island’s high-tech future, Fujita said.
Inouye, D-Hawai’i, said two events occurring around the same time preceded his involvement in securing federal funds for high-technology facilities on the Westside.
First was Hurricane ‘Iniki, in 1992, followed closely by inclusion of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on the list of military bases scheduled to be closed by the U.S. government in efforts to cut military spending after the fall of the government of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
In 1993, Waimea was seen as a potential site for a visitor center. Inouye recalls “two characters” visiting his office in Washington, D.C. They were Baldwin and Hollis Crozier, now KEDB president emeritus.
They told Inouye that if PMRF holds the key to the island’s high-technology future, maybe the Westside visitor center could also be a home to high-technology companies.
“Most people probably thought the three of us were nuts,” with a shared vision of Kaua’i as a high-tech haven, Inouye said.
“This is just the beginning,” said Inouye, not joking when he said subsequent phases of the technology center are already well into planning phases.
The second phase is a single-story building of 12,000 square feet, with 9,000 square feet of leasable space, Yoshioka said.
Already, the second phase has built on the successes of the first phase in bringing home young former Kauaians and other Hawai’i residents who had gone away to school to learn intricacies of the high-technology world, said Rich Carroll, DSR chief executive officer.
DSR alone has six new positions occupied by Hawai’i-born and Hawai’i-trained engineers and technicians, Carroll added. DSR is also a tenant in the first phase, along with Oceanit Laboratories, Solipsys Corporation and Textron Systems Kaua’i.
Virtually all of the companies have some contract work involving PMRF, building offensive and defensive weapons systems or related technologies.
Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste, who recently hosted a meeting of the island’s high-technology players, said he hopes the companies doing business on Kaua’i will work with both grade schools and Kaua’i Community College to design educational programs that will allow students to enter career paths in high technology.
Linda Fay Collins, head of Kikiaola Land Company and seller of land where the visitor and technology buildings rest, thanked KEDB for bringing the facilities to the Westside.
In addition to the $1 million in state funds, $2 million for the second phase came from EDA, and $500,000 came from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Mark A. Chandler, HUD representative, said his department is looking forward to providing additional funds for similar ventures on the island. He sees the center as a “catapult” for Kaua’i, and what it can do for the island.
Fujita thanked Inouye for his continued support for EDA programs, and said EDA representatives are “inspired” by the high-technology project.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
