Stir it Up
The Building Industry Association of Hawaii held its annual Legislative Night Membership Meeting & Stew Challenge on March 16 at the St. Andrew’s Priory courtyard.
The Gentry team (from left): Rick Hobson, Pat Watanabe,
Jami Macy, Sheri Luning and Michael Brant
Winning best stew was the Gentry Homes, Ltd. team with their “Santa Fe Stew,” which also was named the people’s choice winner. “Stew-Nami” contributed by Riggs Distributing (Sub-Zero) took second, and Safety Systems Hawaii Inc.’s “Seafood Stew” took third.
The best theme for the fourth consecutive year in a row was The Gas Company (GASCO) with their “Ninja Stew.”
Kapolei Exchange
Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Kapolei Property Development, LLC signed an agreement on March 24 that will provide the City & County of Honolulu with 34 acres of land in Kapolei in exchange for completing the construction of Kapolei Parkway and resurfacing Kamokila Boulevard.
The exchange includes eight lots fronting Kapolei Parkway and 21 acres that had been designated as “restricted lands,” with the requirement that they be used for government purposes. The restriction will be removed by their conveyance to the city. The city also gains 13 additional acres without use restrictions.
Kapolei Parkway work is to be completed by early 2014.
New Plaza Opens
The Plaza at Mililani is modeled after sister property The Plaza
at Punchbowl in Honolulu.
MW Group, Ltd. celebrated the grand opening of The Plaza at Mililani last month. The 68,000-square-foot rental assisted-living community was built by general contractor Sound Building Systems Hawaii, Inc.
The $24 million, five-story building is designed to serve assisted-living and memory-care seniors in central and west Oahu who are looking for a community that offers a variety of amenities and levels of care, yet does not lock them into a mortgage or a buy-in community. All 128 units, a mix of semi-private and private suites, are equipped with a 24-hour nurse call monitoring system, private bathroom with walk-in shower and kitchenette containing a refrigerator and microwave.
Waimea WWTP
Expands
A groundbreaking ceremony was held April 9 for the expansion of the Waimea Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) on Kauai. Briant Construction, Inc., the construction subsidiary of Kauai-based Aqua Engineers, was selected in November as the contractor for the project, which is expected to be completed in two years. Partially funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act monies ($7 million), the design-build project will more than double the plant’s capacity, from 300,000 to 700,000 gallons a day and produce a high quality (R-1) effluent, which can be used for unrestricted water reuse applications such as crop and open space irrigation.
High-Rise Restart
Besides Hawaiian, Shinto and Buddhist ceremonies, the blessing also included the traditional maile lei untying.
Developer Oliver McMillan (OM) hosted a multicultural blessing ceremony on March 25 for the Pacifica Honolulu. OM acquired the property in late 2009 and has spent the past several months designing and upgrading the stalled condominium project (formerly the Moana Vista), and had planned to resume construction in April. Ledcor Construction Hawaii LLC is the general contractor of the 46-story 489-unit high rise.
(Editor’s note: Learn more about the now upgraded project in next month’s cover story on Residential Construction by Lee Schaller.)
In Memoriam
Robert H. Rask, 1926 - 2010
Robert H. Rask, founder of electrical con- tractor R. Electric Co. and supplier Rasco Supply, passed away at his home in Lihue on April 3 at the age of 83.
He was a past president of the Contractors Association of Kauai (CAK) and, in 1994, was made an honorary lifetime member of the organization. A long-time civic leader on Kauai, Rask also was a former director of the Kauai Chamber of Commerce, an active member of the Lihue United Church and, until his passing, served on the boards of The Salvation Army, Lihue Corp. and Hale Opio.
After Hurricane Iniki devastated the island on Sept. 11, 1992, Rask was called upon by the CAK board to come out of retirement to help re-establish the association. Rask joined CAK’s first ever staff of Naomi Muraoka Nishizaki and Karen Taketa (who continues to serve as its executive director today) in providing services to contractors and members of the Kauai community who need help in rebuilding homes and businesses.
CAK awards its annual Robert H. Rask Spirit of Community Service award to a member who exemplifies Rask’s commitment to community service.
