Thursday, December 11, 2008

Bankruptcy and ancient Native Hawaiian Burials Part 2

In a previous blog entry, I wrote about General Growth Properties under the heading of "Bankruptcy and ancient Native Hawaiian Burials."

The Thursday, December 11, 2008 edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, there is an article that revisits General Growth Properties ("GGP"), its financial troubles, and the Ward Center area that it was in the process of developing.

The article reports that GGP is now trying to sell the Ward Center property to "stave off bankruptcy." According to the article, the ability to sell the property to a willing buyer unlikely for GGP. Considering the current economy, it may be difficult for a buyer to purchase the rather large property and that financing generally isn't available for this type of purchase.

This very same area generated concern among members of the Native Hawaiian community because of the rather high number of ancient burials that were found there. No mention of the burials was made in this recent article or the previous article. Might there have been a settlement between GGP and the parties who fought to protect the burials? I do not recall reading anything in the news about a settlement, so if someone knows, it'll be interesting to find out.

If there is a purchase of this land, it is unclear what impact that purchase (or subsequent action taken on the land) might have on the burials. The disturbed burials and other events brought criticism to the State Historic Preservation Division. Since then, there has been changes.

I can't help but wonder though, if there was a settlement (between GGP and the party that fought to preserve the burials), how might that settlement affect what a different developer can or can't do with the property?

1 comment:

Kiapolo said...

Nah...the real reason is that GGP is raising rents when the economy is tanking and tenets (especially business tenets) struggling to make rent payments...

Actually, I guess it is the reason you state, bad management...