 Yeah, we're back. We're live two o'clock on given Thursday and I'm Jay Fidel. This is ThinkDec and we do our regular show every two weeks called Military in Hawaii. And the military in Hawaii is very important now. All focus right now given Afghanistan. But we have a project demonstrating the loyalty of the American people, the American government to our veterans. And I think sometimes we forget our veterans, but this is a big project and the Hunt Company is developing this project in Kalai Loa. And we have two of its executives with us here today. Talk about the project and how it meets that need, that need to take care of our veterans. Okay. So we have Steve Cologne and Thomas Lee. Welcome to the show you guys. Thank you. Good to be here. So tell us what Hunt Company is, where it is, and what you're doing for it. Steve, you go first. Thanks, Jay, and really appreciate you having us on here. Got some real good news to share with the veterans about some initiatives that we've got going on. Of course, VA being most prominent. You know, Hunt's a large real estate company. We do a lot of development, construction, financing, asset management. We're very involved in with the military. In fact, we own and operate all the Navy housing here in Hawaii, which is about 6,800 homes. We've been in Hawaii since the early 90s, building mostly housing for all services, all branch services. And then the division that I oversee, we've been very active here for the last 18 years when we were selected under a very, very broad, complex agreement with the Navy to redevelop Fort Island and redevelop a whole bunch of what we call the underutilized Navy assets in and around the Pearl Harbor area, including Iroquois Point and the former Barber's Point Naval Air Station. Now, that workout at Barber's Point has evolved over the years and we now are the master developer for about 540 acres. And this is all located within the former air station. We acquired it initially under a ground lease. And what I'd like to tell people is we literally turn the lights back on because you had all of the buildings that encompassed that air station closed down in the mid 90s, which had been vacated. All of the insides had been stripped, copper, wire, plumbing, you name it. So every single one of them now, we've literally turned the lights back on. We've put tenants in there. We have now local businesses that are operating out of there, providing goods and services to the West Oahu community veterans and non-veterans. This location is where the former Barber's Point. Yeah, that's correct. That's correct. And what we're going to talk about here, of course, we're always, you know, we're pretty proud of some of the work we're doing here. So we're always done, always, always wanted to talk about all the things that we've got going on over here in Hawaii. But specifically, what we want to talk about today is a really exciting project. And that is the new location of West Oahu VA Veterans Administration Clinic. And this is before we start with that, I want to introduce Thomas Lee. I think, you know, I think he's nodding already. We have to get him involved in the conversation. So Thomas, I'll ask you the same question I asked Steve. What do you do for Hunt? Thanks, Jay. So my title essentially is Senior Vice President, but I've been working with Steve and with the division since 2006. So I started shortly right before we acquired this property and have kind of been on this wild ride, you know, from, you know, taking this property that, you know, literally was dark at night to where it is today. So, you know, I've been involved in all different aspects of the property from, you know, asset managing, filling some of these buildings. And most recently have been involved in the revitalization and master planning and soon to be, you know, new developments within this new community that we plan on bringing online very soon. I surmise that you're either an engineer or an MBA or both. Which one? Actually, neither. My father was in fact, and a general contractor. So I kind of grew up in the trade and the industry and I like working with my hands. So it's kind of how it got in the industry. Okay. How long you've been with the company? I'll be 15 years next month. Kind of, it's amazing when you're still 26, huh? Well, I know you joined early. You really wanted to do it early. So Steve, talk about the project for the VA. I guess that's really the focus of our show, and I would like to talk about the scope. And if you have some photographs, let's see them. Aaron, we'll have some images here to show you in a second here. But, and I think I had started, you know, former Senator Dan Akaka had been advocating years ago in his post on the Senate Veterans Committee to get a VA facility located out in West Oahu. We have 87,000 veterans here on Oahu. The largest concentration of our vets are on the West side of Oahu. Yet you probably know that the entirety of our, nearly the entirety of the veterans' medical services are provided over at Tripler at the Army Hospital. That was never really intended to be the permanent location for the VA. That was only supposed to be a temporary accommodation many, many years ago. And so it was the center's desire to get a complete standalone VA outpatient clinic established. And while it took several years, the VA finally made the award back in December. And we were fortunate to be selected as a developer to go ahead and build that facility and then go and lease it back to the VA. Thomas is now- So is this project a veteran's hospital, or is it hospital housing, or is it a combination? What? It's an outpatient clinic. Yeah. Okay. And this is, you know, well, Thomas, let's have you go explain the specifics of the building. Sure. Yeah. So Jay, to answer your question, it's categorized as a community-based outpatient clinic. So it will not have ER services, not open seven days a week, you know, six days a week, majority of the normal working hours, but it is not a hospital. I heard Steve say that, you know, Tripler was supposed to be short-term, but not unsurprisingly, it, not surprisingly, it took a long time to get this together. But now it's together. What's the need, however? Do you have an overflow of veterans who require VA assistance here in Hawaii? Thomas, do you want to take that? Sure. I mean, I think that need is, you know, for folks that actually do use the Tripler Medical Center, I think, you know, we had, you know, many testimonials in support given during our HCDA hearings, you know, from veterans who talked about, you know, not only just the needed services in other parts of the island, but, you know, this, just the aging facility in addition to, you know, the need for more parking there. And so, you know, I think building this new ability, you know, state-of-the-art contemporary modern facility out in West Oahu really, you know, delivers it where it's most needed in West Oahu. I would guess that there's a lot of retired military here. And that means, you know, veterans, veterans administration beneficiaries. And I'm just wondering, you know, are they being turned away at Tripler? No, no. Jay, they're, you know, the, I don't want to insinuate that the veterans care here is inadequate. What I want to emphasize is the Tripler facility has completely been overtaxed. They are, that facility was built years ago, and the number of patients it is serving on told is about three times what it's designed for. There is no, they have to do valet parking. They can't, they just, it is absolutely, completely overwhelmed. And they really needed to, they need to help the VA get more healthcare closer to where the veterans actually live. And so part of this is to not have everybody have to go to Tripler. It's pushing these services out into the communities where the veterans are. And I think that's a, that was a big, big part of the impetus for this. That sounds like a wonderful project for them and for the state and for all of us. Was there, you know, was the state involved in lobbying for this? Were veteran, veteran organizations involved in lobbying for this? Was our delegation involved in lobbying for this? All of the above. Our delegation was very involved. In fact, you know, Senator Hirono sits on the Senate committee that's responsible for veterans, veterans affairs. So she was a tireless advocate in ensuring that Senator Kaka's, you know, legacy was fulfilled here. Senator Schatz on the Center Appropriations Committee was also very helpful and influential in ensuring that the appropriate, the dollars required to make this happen were appropriated. So they were very involved. This project really had a broad community of support. And Thomas mentioned a while back, HCDA, HCDA stands for the Hawaii Community Development Authority. That's the redevelopment agency that's overseeing the redevelopment of all of Harvard's Point, now Kale Loa. And this clinic is going through, went through a development approval process with HCDA. And all of the feedback was very, very positive. I don't think there was anybody opposed to this. It was all folks in support. I can't imagine anybody being opposed to it, really. So, Thomas, what's the size of the project? My reading tells me it's pretty big. It can handle a lot of people. How big is it? So, Jay, the size of the building is almost 100,000 square feet. It's about 90,000 square feet gross, which includes common area and other open space. At its full capacity, there's 528 spaces. And so it's designed to handle a few hundred patients a day in addition to the couple hundred employees that will be working on site. In terms of the community benefits that provides, I mean, we're extremely excited about building this clinic in Kalei Loa and excited about the benefits that it will provide to the West Oahu area by providing, like I said, a lot of those critically needed services, some of which will be primary care, mental health, dental, pharmacy, x-ray, and other types of specialty care that the veterans need. So, is it in construction right now today? Nope. So, we are still in the design process with the VA. We're getting close to submitting our plans for permits. And we're hoping to start construction. Actually, the development timeline for this project has been dictated by our lease agreement with the VA. And so we do have a very strict timeline to deliver it, which obligates us to a completion date of some time in late summer of 2023. And in order to meet the timeline, we have to start construction by around November of this year. And so we hope to have a ground blessing before the end of the year. Two questions about COVID. I'd like to ask you guys. Is COVID going to affect your timeline for one thing? You know, right now, there's a surge. It seems to be getting worse. Some companies are changing the way they do business. Some employees are not hungry to come back. I don't know about the construction industry. It did very well in the first part of COVID. COVID-1. That may affect COVID-2, though. Yeah. Jay, as you said, construction workers like to work. They like to build. And during COVID, as you know, this has been a very, very busy industry. I would say, like Thomas said, we are planning on breaking ground. We will be delivering the facility in two years. And the only thing that I could see that could potentially disrupt that would be if there was a large-scale COVID-related supply disruption. You know, you're well aware of what happened last year and some of the problems that that's caused. You know, what I'm hearing is that the system is now getting stabilized again and back to kind of equilibrium. And we should be okay. I mean, as you know with COVID, all bets are off. But certainly from our standpoint, you know, even with all of the COVID protocols in place, we don't see any impact on our either timing or ability to deliver the project. A lot of the troops coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq will be in Hawaii, I think. Hawaii is like a favorite retirement spot, not only for the senior officers, but also be listed, guys. And you know, they're going to come back and some of them are going to be, and regret to say this, but some are going to be at the low end, maybe homeless. They won't be able to find jobs and so forth. And they're vulnerable in that way to catching COVID now and probably for a while in the future, you know, because it'll go endemic before it goes away. And so the question is, what role would this facility play with veterans who have or have been exposed to, been infected by COVID? Well, you know, this facility will be built in, it delivered in, you know, two, about two and a half years from now. So, you know, my answer there is, I think it's going to depend on where COVID is in two and a half years and where we are on a solution to COVID. I mean, right now, there are veterans, medical benefits and facilities available. Right now, they can go to Tripler, to the VA up in Tripler. And there are also, you mentioned, veterans homeless, there are veterans homeless facilities out right nearby where this clinic is going to be in Kailua. These are operated by the state Veterans Administration as well as private operators. So there are veterans homeless outreach and medical services available right now on Island. You know, I have friends and relatives who've been in the service and qualify for VA benefits. And, you know, I know there's been criticism even during the time when Daniel Lukaka was chair of the Veterans Administration Committee Congress in the Senate. But the feeling I get is that Veterans Administration provides excellent service. And in general, they are very caring for their troopers and beneficiaries. And I sense this is part of that. I mean, the medicine is excellent in the view of many and it is available on a very aloha basis in the view of many. Have you had discussions? Is that part of the theme of this project? Well, again, I think this project is just going to continue and perpetuate that, you know, obviously quality medical care for veterans is a national priority. It's a national necessity. And so it's something that I believe this administration, every administration will make a priority on. And this facility is going to be state of the art. This facility is going to be able to offer up the best of those. So any positive comments you've received in the past on the quality of medical care for veterans, which I would endorse, I believe will continue to be perpetuated here. Yeah. The other thing is, you know, a state of the art facility, a big facility like this, is part in my mind of a sort of a community caring. What I mean is if I see a Veterans Administration, if I see a veteran who enjoys good service, who is cared for by the government, and therefore the people that enhances my own patriotism, it enhances my own view that in some cases, my own wish that the government takes care of its veterans. This is really part of our country. It's part of it. We cannot afford to forget them or abandon them. And to the extent that we care for them, they're really making a statement of patriotism. So I think you'll probably find that the community in general would be positively affected by a project like this, perhaps even more than just ordinary housing, you know, or institutional construction for the military or the government in general. I think it's special when you're talking about the veterans and it has an effect on people. And we need that. Therefore, we need to have shows like this so the public can understand how important it is, not only to them, but us thoughts. Well, Jay, it's interesting that you bring that up because one of the tremendous benefits I think that's going to come out of this is going to be the quality of the jobs that this is going to provide. You know, you just mentioned these construction projects are temporary. You build them and then you move on to another construction project. This is going to create full-time, high-quality medical professional job opportunities for folks who live on the West Side. And I think it's just it's going to be great to have this over there. We all know that's a need that's going to help keep more people here in Hawaii. It's going to provide health care for veterans for, you know, for where they live, which is predominantly out on the West Side. And like I said, it's everything about the project I think is, you know, preposterous. Thomas, do you remember the numbers on how many jobs this will create full-time? Thomas, I want to ask you another question along the same lines, though. You know, we have a very uneven job market these days. Sometimes we have too many jobs and too few applicants. Sometimes the other way around. And when you're talking about, you know, specialized jobs like medical support jobs and medical doctor jobs and medical administrative jobs, there could be a real problem in filling the ranks here in this center. So is that part of the Hunt Company contract? I mean, are you going to actually manage this place or just build it? And if you're not going to manage it, who is going to manage it? And what is the anticipation on not so much the jobs but filling the jobs? Right. That's a good question, Jay. So our goal in this development is clearly as a last sore, I'm sorry. So our obligation there is to design, finance, construct, and maintain the building. But the operations and maintenance and other maintenance of the thing will be done by the VA. So in terms of filling the positions, we've been told, you know, it will be a mixture of moving some folks over from Tripler to this new facility. But there will also be new, you know, these are also creative positions. And so, you know, the positions within the VA will expand. And from what I've been told, they will be hiring, you know, from Mainland, you know, and wherever the, you know, their talent is for their specialty care. And, you know, and I've been learning kind of throughout our design process that the needs and services that are, you know, soldiers required, you know, has been changing with, you know, different deployments, there's different types of needs. And so those types of needs are filled with, you know, new doctors that they hire. So I hope that answers your question. Yeah, well, I think it's important that we, you know, we take a, we scope that out. Because if you were to train people who would staff this facility, you'd have to start early, you know, if it's going to be done in the summer of 2023, it'd be a good idea to start doing that right now. And maybe UH West O'ahu could participate in that. Maybe the medical school in Kaka'aka, you know, also on HCDA land, right, could participate in that and provide a whole new sector of the economy. This is not a bad idea. And, you know, of course, the training would be useful not only in the VA system here, but elsewhere. So it seems to me that one of your messages or one of the management's messages ought to be, Hey, you guys, start training people now, because there are good jobs here. And this is the kind of job that you could, you know, you could use anywhere, including outside the country for that matter. Speaking outside the country, I wonder, you know, it seems to me that a veteran who applies for medical care at a given institution, he doesn't have to live in the neighborhood. He could be from anywhere. You can have veterans who are in Asia, Europe, who really like this place. They like the state of the art. Hopefully they like the staffing. So they'll come here and be part of the, you know, institution that you're building. Isn't that true? Absolutely. Yeah. It's not just, it's for veterans. It's for veterans regardless of where they are, where they live. It's healthcare for those who've served. Well, let's drill down a little bit. You have some photos. I think we saw one or two. Let's see some more and you can tell us about them. So this is a site plan. It might be, maybe if we start one slide back, Eric. So here we go. So that's the rendering of our, the front corner of our building. For folks that aren't necessarily familiar with the lay of the land and the region out there, this, the site of this VA clinic will be located on the northwestern most corner of the former Barber's Point Naval Air Station. So if you look at that from a regional aerial, it is literally the, the piece of land, just Makai, up Lake Costco. So if you were to stand up Lake Costco, you could rock at this site. And it's just Makai of that site located on the intersection of the existing FDR Avenue, as well as a new road that Hunt will be building shown on the right side of this graphic here, which is going to be the Kamakila extension. And so the current Kamakila Boulevard terminates right where this site is right now. And essentially this 50 acre parcel will be bisected by this, you know, 100 foot right of way, which will be newly constructed and will be built to service this clinic. Anything else? What, what, what, what next photo there? Yeah, so some of the other, I guess, features of the site, you know, this building is going to be green building certified. Our architect for the project is Faro Choy and Associates, and they were selected, you know, as a recognized leader in sustainable design. Couple of their notable, you know, notable projects that folks may be aware of is, you know, the NOAA building on Fort Island, which is a lead platinum building. I believe they also were the architect for the Culinary Institute at KCC, which was recently constructed, as well as, you know, doing some work for Queens and other medical facilities on Island. So, you know, did this host, or, you know, the the requirements of the VA did require us to do a green building certification under what a program called Green Globes. And so, you know, the site plan that was shown in the previous graphic, you know, showed, you know, the plethora of trees on the site to counteract the, the, the dearth of parking there, you know, the VA required twice the amount of parking that the ACDA zone code allows. And so to combat the, the mitigation of having this big black parking lot, you know, we, you know, a few hundred trees are going to be planted on the site to combat that heat island effect amongst a handful of other kind of green and sustainable features for the, for the building. Okay, I guess that, I guess that ends the photos. I want to drill down and ask you now, you know, what the challenges are. You know, you're not going to just sit there and watch this thing grow. You have to handle certain issues. What issues do you have to handle going forward for the next two years? Well, I'll start and then Thomas can drill down a little bit. The, a lot, a lot of the issues we are, have already mitigated a lot, but I would say, you know, first off, we have a very, very tight timeline and you, you addressed a potential issue there. You know, COVID has created a lot of unknowns that didn't exist back when this project was first being solicited. So we're watching carefully to see what's happening with the supply chain and, you know, being here in Hawaii, you know, we're kind of at the end of the line there. So when, when they're, when the factories are not able to produce the construction materials on the mainland, we're, you know, we're going to, we're going to be the first to not get them. So, you know, we're certainly watching the supply chain carefully. We're also working closely with our general contractor to make sure that, you know, our required labor availability is there. The, the, you know, Hawaii's notorious for being very diligent and plotting in not granting approvals for, for construction projects. I've never heard it put quite that way, Steve, but I compliment you one on the euphemistic way you put that. Okay. Thanks, Jay. I was trying to, trying to come up with a nice way to say it, but, you know, when in a situation like this, we just, we don't have the time. We don't really, and nor do we feel that it's really appropriate to, for a project that, this is a federal project, it is, it's, it's guidelines in terms of design and how many patients they want to be able to serve equipment that's going to be in there are all, they're prescribed by the feds, by the VA here. So what we've been trying to do is to really bring as much of these facts as possible to the community stakeholders and the political leaders there to encourage, you know, timely approvals, timely approvals from the, on the permitting from HCDA, timely approvals on getting building permits from the county. So I would say, you know, those are two of the biggest things that we're watching closely. Thomas, what else? I don't know. I would say you captured everything pretty well, Steve, but you know, I think what we've also seen is, you know, during COVID, you know, there was, I wouldn't say a pause, but you know, a lot of, I think smaller projects were kind of shelled for a little while. And what we've seen is the number of permits has increased, you know, massively, you know, right after when things started opening up again. And so what we're working with right now is, you know, building department and their staff who are still, I think a majority of them are still working from home. And so even though the economy may be back in full swing, I think the agencies that are still kind of on the regulatory side really haven't caught up. And so we're doing our things on track, but I think where the difficulties lie ahead are on the regulatory side. Are you fully funded or is it some condition there, you know, given, I don't know if you're a beneficiary of the infrastructure bill or bills that are happening? What's the size of your project? The project is going to be financed through construction loans, kind of the typical way that we as developers get these projects done. So this project is going to be financed by a mainland-based lender that has a lot of experience in financing these type of VA clinics. Now, we anticipate that that financing will close around the end of next month. So in the meantime, in fact, for the past couple of years, and certainly ever since we got selected, full speed ahead since December, we've been funding this, you know, the company's been been finding what we call company equity. So we are, as you say in the Navy, you know, all engines ahead full, in fact, all engines ahead flank, because we're really going full speed on this right now. You know, we're very confident that the financing will come through and should be good together. Oh yeah, I think what I would add to that is, you know, from the government side, you know, the government is contributing some money towards like TI and improvements and equipment that is fully funded as well as an approved 15-year lease term. So the Congress has approved the VA to enter into a 15-year agreement with us to fund that whole rental stream. So from that perspective, it is fully funded. And, you know, as Steve alluded to, we're close to closing on the financing for the country. Yeah, this is a common method of building military facilities, isn't it, these days? Private company come in, you know, get financing, build at least it back for a period of years. This is what happens now, is it? Yeah, I wouldn't say certainly not universally. The VA has been doing this on and off. As you mentioned, the military, in fact, the military is the poster child for this type of arrangement with respect to the military housing. It's really only the house. The all-service branches have privatized the military housing, where they made a conscious decision and said, we as government are not and we as military are not in the core business of providing housing. So what they decided to do is they outsourced that. They outsourced that to the real estate community. We competed for that business. Like I said, we own the Navy housing. In fact, we're the largest owner of military housing in the country. And under those arrangements, basically, we have the rights for 50 years to own and operate military housing. And that requires us to upgrade those buildings to the homes to renovate them, make sure they're safe and secure for the soldiers and sailors and airmen to live in. This is a classic example, this VA facility. We think you will see more and more of this. In fact, in Hawaii, there's a pioneer of this type of arrangement. I talked about the Ford Island Agreement that was done 20 years ago. But you are right, Jay. This is more and more becoming common to see these type of public-private partnership arrangements. Yeah, it all sounds very healthy and efficient. The only thing is, at the end of the day, you've got to collect the rent as the owner of the building. That goes for housing, and it goes for the VA. In the VA case, they're going to pay you for sure. That's good as gold in the housing. I suppose it's housing allowances. So that's also good as gold, because that will come from the government on behalf of the tenants. Anyway, so I get the idea for your discussion, Steve, that you're a veteran Navy. And I would guess you were a line officer. I would guess you served here. And I would guess you are at least a commander. Am I right? You've got pretty much hit on all those. I'm a retired Navy captain. Captain, sorry, I didn't mean to underestimate you. That's okay. It's all good. Yeah. Well, thank you very much, gentlemen. It's great to talk to you. I wish you well on this project. It's very important not only for you and the hunt company, but it's important for the state and the country. And if I were you, I'd feel very proud in being part of it. Don't you agree, Thomas? Absolutely. And Steve, what message would you leave about yours? Well, Jay, again, thanks for having us. I hope you got a little bit of a feel for how proud and excited we are about doing this project. Like I said, this is something that Senator Akaka, this was his dream. We're honored to be selected to implement that vision. We're super excited to be building this. And we look forward to seeing you and a whole lot others at the ribbon cutting when we can proudly start delivering quality medical services to our veterans. So look forward to seeing you there. Yeah. After the show, put me on the list. Okay, don't forget. I'll be there. Absolutely. Steve, Colin and Thomas Lee, thank you so much for joining us on the military. You know, a great discussion, important project. Aloha. Thank you. Aloha.