By Craig Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Jack Tyrrell stands next to a vacant lot at Lunalilo Street
in Makiki that will be part of a $25.8 million, 110-unit
independent living and assisted living project
for senior citizens.
Coming to America
A Makiki senior housing project
By Jerry Tune
is the latest example of a federal
green-card program being used
to lure foreign investment to Hawaii
Star-BulletinJack Tyrrell, a Honolulu certified public accountant, knows the value of foreign investors coming to Hawaii. Tyrrell is using a federal program to help back Crowne Vista, a 110-unit independent living and assisted living project for senior citizens. The $25.8 million project will offer fee-simple units at tentative prices of $290,000 to $450,900 in Makiki.
Tyrrell said the project could involve as many as 57 foreign investors who can get immigrant investor visas, better known as green cards.
Under the federal Immigrant Investor Program, each investor must put up a minimum of $500,000, for at least two years, which will create 10 full-time jobs.
"So far I have six foreign investors and four of them have been approved (by the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service)," Tyrrell said. "Two are from Taiwan, two are from China, one from Japan and one from Korea."
He said they include a wealthy Taiwan manufacturer who wants to get a better education for his children; a Taiwan student at Hawaii Pacific University whose parents loaned him the investment money; a Japanese woman who loves Hawaii; a Korean health professional whose brother was already doing business in the United States; and a Chinese family that pooled money to allow nephews to come to Hawaii.
Each foreign participant can qualify his or her spouse and their unmarried children under 21 years old to apply for a "conditional permanent resident" status in the United States.
Two years after the initial investment, the conditional status can be removed. Five years after the initial investment, the investor can apply for U.S. citizenship. The road for developers is long too.
It took Tyrrell one year to purchase the vacant land on Lunalilo Street and then two years of meeting with potential investors and immigration attorneys to get his development ready for sales next month.
"Two years ago I went to Taiwan for the first time," Tyrrell said. "In the last two months, I have been to Japan four times, Taiwan two times and to a Texas meeting of immigration lawyers.
"When I went to Taiwan (initially), all the Hawaii companies were competing against other states or promoters," Tyrrell said. "They weren't all on the up and up."
Green cards were advertised for sale at big prices by promoters who would bend the program rules and not get the full required investment up front, Tyrrell said.
Promoters would get large fees but the required investments were not made in the United States, he said.
The federal government finally cracked down on these promoters and in December the INS issued a 36-page memorandum that told green card promoters to follow the rules.
Hawaii is one of only two states (Vermont is the other) that uses a minimum investment of $500,000 instead of $1 million. That's because the Hawaii unemployment rate is about 1.5 times the national average.
Efforts of the immigrant investor program have paid off well for Hawaii. The state estimates based on the number of approved applicants that at least $19 million was invested in Hawaii during 1996, and more than $21 million was invested last year.
Other Hawaii businesses have looked to Asia for investors.
The Hawaiki Tower project next to Ala Moana Center could raise $20 million from Asian investors under the program, said Karl Heyer IV, president of Karl Heyer & Associates and project manager for McCormack Real Estate Services which handles sales and marketing.
There are 40 "partnership shares" available to foreign investors, and so far about 30 investors want to use the program, Heyer said.
Only one has been approved by the INS using the new review process set up in the 36-page memorandum.
"It's a long application process that can take six months or more," Heyer said. The investors are 70 percent from Taiwan and 30 percent from Japan, he added.
"In Taiwan, it is mostly young families who have the American dream and want to start a new life in America," Heyer said. "In Japan, it is more elderly who want to spend their retirement years here."
Heyer said investors are part of 88 Piikoi Development Partners which is doing the second tower of the long-term phased development for the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Development (Honolulu) Inc. which "could take 15 or 20 years." Two more towers are planned. The Hawaiki Tower is creating 1,800 direct or indirect jobs, Heyer added.
Mike Aley, president of the Big Island Abalone Corp., made a pitch for investors in July on Taiwan to raise funds for a 10-acre expansion at the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park next to the Natural Energy Laboratory at Keahole. He hopes to get six investors to raise about half of the $6 million to $7 million for the construction of 20 Fiberglas tanks.
"We will need the money about this time next year," Aley said.
His company uses a special red algae to get optimum growth in the abalone. The first abalone shipment is planned for fall 2000.
Meanwhile, Tyrrell expects construction on his Crowne Vista project will start in January and take 13 months. Crowne Vista will have 24-hour security, an emergency medical response service, wellness program staffed by a registered nurse, meal service and maid service, he said.
The state has sponsored six promotional trips to Asia since 1986 to help lure foreign investors to Hawaii projects. Next stop: Osaka
The next economic mission is to Osaka, Japan, from Oct. 19-22 and will take 10 Hawaii companies offering investment packages. There are two openings left, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
The Osaka trip is being held in conjunction with the Global Business Opportunities Convention. For information, call Emogene Estores at 587-2762.
Star-Bulletin staff
