Public Safety and Economic Development Committee Approves No Lying Down on Sidewalk Bill

The Honolulu City Council's Public Safety and Economic Development Committee has given their approval on a bill which will make lying down on city sidewalks illegal.  Under Bill 59, "no person shall lie down on a public sidewalk, or on a tarp, towel, sheet, blanket, sleeping bag, bedding, chair, bench, tent floor or any other object or material located on a public sidewalk."  Special exceptions are made in the law for medical emergencies and for those who have attempted but failed to make overnight accommodation from a homeless shelter on the day a citation or arrest is to take place. Advocates of the homeless feel that the bill is unjust.  Michael Daly, a homeless advocate, stated, "The idea behind it seems to be to harass homeless people so they go to shelters."  Daly added that many homeless avoid shelters because "they are inadequate, demoralizing and inhumane."

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 10-4-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
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Moderate Hotel Occupancy Growth Forecast for 2014

According to a forecast issued by Hospital Advisors LLC, moderate hotel occupancy growth can be expected for 2014.  Oahu is expected to lead the way with an 88.6% occupancy rate (85.9% in 2013) with Maui coming in second with an 76.9% occupancy rate (73.7% in 2013). Kauai is forecast to also see an improvement at 71.6% occupancy rate (70.2% in 2013) while the Big Island should have a 67.8% occupancy rate (64.5% in 2013).  Room prices are expected to hold steady with resort and retain transactions increasing slightly.  President and CEO of Hospitality Advisors LLC, Joseph Toy, stated, "We had a pretty strong summer, although our occupancy retreated a bit from the previous one.  Our rates, however, obviously went really high mostly because of compression and yield management."

Vice President of commercial real estate company Colliers International, Mark Bratton, added, "It's a great time to buy a Hawaii hotel, and investors are interested.  I think we'll see three to four more hotel sales in Waikiki this year.  The $99-a-night rooms are disappearing in Waikiki.  They are becoming $139 rooms as new owners renovate and seek returns."  Bratton noted that retail stores in hotels have also increased to $14.83 per sq ft as compared to $10.09 in 2012.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 10-4-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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Update from Howard Hughes Company on Kakaako Condominiums

Under the Howard Hughes Corporation master-plan, a total of 4,000 residential units and 1 million sq ft of new retail and commercial space will be added to the Kakaako neighborhood in the next 15 years.  The first phase will be the building of three new condominium towers in the Ward Village area.  These towers are tentatively called 1140 Ala Moana Blvd, 1108 Auahi Street and 404 Ward Avenue and are ultra-luxury, luxury, and moderate income respectively.  Sales for these towers should begin in December 2013.

Chief Executive Officer for the Howard Hughes Corporation, David Weinreb, stated, "We certainly think it is a great time to be doing this. It's almost impossible to determine how long a market cycle will last but we certainly think at this point we are in the early innings of a robust and reasonably long-term period that you can see demand.  From extrapolating what One Ala Moana sold for using an average price of about $1,200 a square foot you can come up with a number that is certainly a big number. But will it be that number? It could be less or more. It's hard to say, but we're hopeful that demand will be robust. And we do think there is a market for people wanting to live in this kind of community."

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 10-3-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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Update on 801 South Street and Royal Capital Plaza

Residents of the Royal Capital Plaza condominium tower have filed a protest with the Hawaii Community Development Authority to stop the building of a second tower at 801 South Street.  The first tower at 801 South Street will have a total of 635 units and has already been approved for construction.  However, developer Downtown Capital LLC has requested the rights to build a second 410-unit tower.  Downtown Capital LLC argues that there is a need to have moderate income housing in the area and believes that certain variances should be given by the HCDA since they are filling that need.  Opponents of the project argue that the second tower of 801 South Street would block views, create too high of a population density in that area and overwhelm the sewer and water infrastructure currently in place.

Aside from the residents living in Royal Capital Plaza, members of the Historic Hawaii Foundation also oppose the building of the second tower at 801 South Street.  If Downtown Capital LLC was allowed to build tower 2, it would mean the demolition of about half of the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper building, a historic building constructed in 1929.  Downtown Capital LLC has stated that they would like to build a 10-story parking garage in its location.

The Hawaii Community Development Authority is scheduled to meet towards the end of this year.  A second public hearing is scheduled for December 4, 2013.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 10-3-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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How the Federal Shutdown Will Hurt Hawaii

With the federal government at an impasse in Washington, many Hawaii residents are concerned how the shutdown will hurt the state of Hawaii.According to United States Senator Brian Schatz (Hawaii) as many as 15,000 defense civilians and 25,000 federal employees could be furloughed because of this government shutdown. The Hawaii National Guard has decided to postpone their monthly drills for nearly 5,000 soldiers and airmen until they receive a clearer picture of the what is happening.  Other group affected include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (100 employees), shipyard workers at Pearl Harbor (3,000 workers) and all national parks and museums.  State of Hawaii Finance Director, Kalbert Young, stated, "And like sequestration, the actual in-practice implications are going to take time to materialize and for us to be able to see them so that they can be evaluated. I would like it to end tomorrow or tonight, but my suspicion is it will be a couple of days. But what if it gets to be a week? That gets to be a real problem."

Young added that there are many programs that are administered by state and local officials on behalf of the federal government.  For example, Medicaid, temporary assistance for needy families, subsidized school lunches and food stamps are all handled locally.  Young cautioned, "The question now is, Well, who is paying for all these programs? Because what I'm dealing with is now, on Oct. 1, when the federal government is not in action, nobody has said anything about these programs. So is the public expecting the states or the local governments will pay for these on behalf of the federal government? Because the states and the counties don't have any clear picture on whether or not they will be reimbursed."

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 10-2-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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Bankruptcy Filings Decrease in September 2013

According to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, there were only 153 filings in September 2013.  This represents a 4.4 percent decrease from the same month a year prior and the lowest amount of cases since February 2008 when 141 cases were filed. Honolulu County saw a 15.3 percent decrease with only 94 filings.  Hawaii County (Big Island) saw only 15 filings, a decrease of 16.7 percent from a year prior.  Maui County saw an increase of 28 percent, or 32 filings.  Kauai County had 12 cases in September, twice as many as the six cases that they had during the same month in 2012.

In related news, according to personal finance company Credit Karma, Hawaii residents reduced their credit card debt to $5,235 in July 2013 from $7,142 in July 2012.  The state of Hawaii still has the highest average credit score in the country, tied with Washington D.C. at approximately 666 FICO.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 10-2-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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Personal Income Increases By 1.1 Percent During Second Quarter of 2013

According to a report released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, personal income for the state of Hawaii has increased by 1.1 percent during the second quarter of 2013.  This equates to $63.9 billion total in personal income for residents of the Hawaiian Islands.  The increase ranked Hawaii as the 11th highest increase among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  The state of Hawaii's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, is predicting that personal income will increase by 4.5 percent during 2013.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 10-1-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com