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Sunday, September 28, 2014

Urban Landowners Unhappy with HART Land Acquisition Team's Communication

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation will need to purchase a total of 230 parcels of land along the route from Kapolei to Ala Moana Center to build the Honolulu Rail Project.  So far, HART has managed to purchase 68 properties, primarily in West Oahu, which represents 71 percent of the total area needed.  However, as the project moves closer toward urban Honolulu, a lot of the properties being looked at are owned by either private businesses or individuals, and these landowners are expressing their frustration at the lack of information as to how the Honolulu Rail Project would affect them specifically.

HART had previously stated that one of the main goals of the acquisition team would be to "continue to communicate and educate effectively" the landowners and communities where the rail project would pass through.  However, landowners state that they have been getting conflicting information every few months as to how much land HART will need to acquire, when HART would need it by, and what the compensation amount would be.

Dan Grabauskas, the chief executive officer for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation stated, "If there's been a lack of communication for some folks, we'll step it up. We are doing our utmost to work cooperatively with property owners and to accommodate them whenever possible as we move forward to try to build the project. We realize it's a balancing act because we do need to make sure that we maintain schedule and keep within budget, and those two are sometimes competing interests and we attempt to do our best to walk that line."

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 9-28-2014, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Principal Broker, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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