Big Island park
guns for Oahu tenants

Shipman Business Park
says it offers companies more room
for profit than they can find
around Honolulu

By Peter Wagner
Star-Bulletin

Come on down!

With land and housing at a fraction of the cost on Oahu, why not move your business to Keaau, ask the owners of Shipman Business Park, just south of Hilo.

"Here it costs $260,000 to buy a one-acre lot," said Bob Saunders, president of W.H. Shipman Ltd. "There are people paying that much to rent a piece of land on Oahu."

The company says businesses will find lower costs and higher profits at the fledgling park.

"We constantly hear the business community complaining about how hard it is to do business in Hawaii," Saunders said. "We're offering an alternative."

W.H. Shipman last month began a series of advertisements comparing land, labor, and housing costs between the two islands. Average home prices in East Hawaii are said to be less than half those on Oahu, commercial property less than a third.

And with the recent closure of sugar mills on the Big Island, the labor pool is large.

It's early in the game, but response has been light. Saunders sees a long road ahead overcoming misconceptions about the cost of living and doing business on the Big Island.

"Frankly, it's an an uphill battle," he said.

The 488-acre park, opened in 1988, is at a crossroads between Hilo and the fast-growing Puna district. Sixty-four of 88 lots, ranging from half an acre to five acres, have been sold. Tenants include Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., Sure Save supermarkets, HPM Building Supply and Puna Rock Co.

But sales have tapered off with Hawaii's slumping economy. And most businesses that have bought into the park are relocating from Hilo. What Shipman wants is new faces from Oahu, and the growth that would come with it.

"The future is what they're trying to develop here," said Dana Kenny, broker at Savio Realty Ltd. Better Homes & Gardens Hilo, which is marketing the park. "Hilo has grown as big as its going to grow. Puna is in its infant stage."

About $50 million in new projects are planned in Keaau, including a high school, elementary school, shopping center, McDonald's, and bypass road.

Shipman six months ago turned its glance to Oahu, where complaints about the high cost of business are rampant. The company did a survey of 2,000 Oahu businesses, targeting manufacturers, retailers, and warehousers. About 4 percent responded, mostly small companies with markets on the neighbor islands.

Such businesses that would do well to move to Keaau, Kenny said.

"The major shipping companies will deliver to the Big Island for the same price as to Oahu," he said, adding that the park is wired with fiber optics.

Kenny said moving to the Big Island doesn't make sense for everyone -- particularly retailers or companies with markets mostly on Oahu. But others -- warehousers, distributors, and data processing companies -- could operate from the Shipman property, he said.

Charles Clarke, owner of Charles Clarke Realtor and marketing agent for a new development phase at the Koloko Business Park in Kona, thinks Shipman has a good idea.

"They're got the materials to make it happen," he said. "I haven't seen that kind of a push over here."

Clarke is negotiating seven lot sales involving mainland and Hawaii companies and investors to expand to Koloko.

Meanwhile, Shipman plans to run a new ad next month showing a 20,000-square-foot office/warehouse built at the park for $40 a square foot on a 1-acre lot costing $6 a square foot. The ad also shows a 4-bedroom, 2-bath home on 3 acres with a swimming pool for $129,000 -- less than half housing costs on Oahu.

The commute, it says, is "15 minutes through the forest."