KAILUA-KONA — More than 300 boat owners at Honokohau Small Boat Harbor are being advised by the state to make arrangements with the new operator of the harbor’s dry marine storage facility.
Pacific Marine Partners LLC, doing business as Honokohau Marine Storage, assumes operations of the 9-acre boat storage lot on Nov. 1 after the state Board of Land and Natural Resources terminated a revocable month-to-month permit held by Gentry’s Kona Marina during its Aug. 10 meeting in Honolulu.
The company was the winner of a public auction of the 10-year lease held in July, according to BLNR minutes and submittals.
Jason Hoopai, one of the members of Pacific Marine Partners, won with a bid to pay 50 percent of gross receipts to the state, according to submittals to the Board of Land and Natural Resources.
An appraisal in December determined the annual minimum ground rent was $423,000.
Under Gentry’s Kona Marina’s most recent permit, the company paid the state $7,311.45 per month, or 5 percent of gross receipts, whichever is greater, according to submittals. Over a 12-month period, that equated to just under $88,000.
Gentry’s Kona Marina has operated the facility since 2003 when it took over a revocable permit that Gentry Properties had held from 1999 to 2003. From 1994 to 1999, Gentry Properties held a five-year lease that was not renewed; only revocable permits had been issued since.
State officials on Friday spent the day at the North Kona harbor informing owners, who have vessels or trailers stored on the lot, by phone, email and a flyer to contact the new operator to continue their leases without interruption.
The move came after Gentry’s Kona Marina posted “notice-to-vacate” signs on the fence and gate leading to the boat storage facility creating confusion for boat owners. The signs stated boat owners must remove boats and trailers by Oct. 14 and that Gentry’s Kona Marina would not be responsible for any property remaining thereafter.
“Misinformation about current tenant’s need to vacate the property is being circulated. It is not accurate. Tenants are able to negotiate new storage agreements with the new operator that will allow continued use of the space they are already occupying,” said Suzanne Case, DLNR chairperson, in a press release.
For more information, boaters can email mahalo@honokohaustorage.com or begin the registration process online at www.honokohaustorage.com. The website does state that “vessels without new rental agreements will be locked in/out from the yard at the time of the new ownership. Unregistered vessels are subject to penalties, state and county fines, towing and damages at owners sole expense.”
“We know that the transition is disruptive and we are here to help,” Hoopai told West Hawaii Today Friday. “We took on the challenge of the boat yard because we think there’s an opportunity to help the community more than what is happening now. And, right now, it feels like confirmation that that is probably right.”
For the last several years, the BLNR has directed that DLNR divisions transition revocable permits to long-term leases, if leases offer the best possible use for a specific property, according to the press release.
DOBOR had intended to consolidate the Gentry’s Kona Marina revocable permit into a lease through direct negotiation, but was advised by the Attorney General that public auction was the most appropriate method to offer the property.
In July, a public auction sale was held and Pacific Marine Partners LLC was the successful bidder. Subsequently, Gentry’s Kona Marina was notified it was being terminated as the operator of the facility and given until Oct. 31 to vacate.
Tina Prettyman, Gentry’s Kona Marina general manager, did not respond for comment as of press time.
On Gentry’s Kona Marina’s notice to vacate letter, the company said it would continue to offer dry dock services. The notice, signed by Prettyman, added: “It has been a great pleasure to serve you and the boating community.”
“We know that the transition is disruptive and we are here to help,” Hoopai told West Hawaii Today Friday.
Yeah…bend over here comes your new storage fee!
Why would they need to? Their contract pays them $211,500 per year at current rents. They have no mortgage and virtually no maintenance costs. All they need to do is send out bills every month and make sure the gate opens and closes. That’s a sweet deal but what Gentry’s has been raking in is insane. I’m sure they were very close with the person at DLNR that was making the decisions on that contract. That was a very important person to keep happy and make sure they continue on their exclusive, no bid contracts. I’m sure he was on Gentry’s Christmas card list.
And now there is a new DLNR VIP to keep happy with a red envelope
All of these government contracts should be open bid.
Not going to happen ….just look at the difficulty the County is having getting a bill that forbids Govt employees to lie!
The sweet deal in the DLNR and their retirement program. We created them with our tax dollars now they fence off public property, charge us to use it, then retire with a 2M pension.
Wow, Gentry’s was bringing in $423,000/ yr on that dirt parking lot and only only paid $88,000 in rent. There are virtually no expenses. The DLNR was going to negotiate directly and avoid giving other companies a chance to bid? That’s a recipe for corruption. You really have to keep an eye on these slime balls.
The letter Gentry’s sent out was clearly intended to induce panic.
The DLNR documents I read imply that Gentry just assumed the lease was theirs in perpetuity and hardly bothered to go through the effort to renew. They had a ten day window to appeal an contested case. They lost in the auction and were pissed off and tried to panic boat owners that they had to find other storage for their boats by Oct 14.
Considering many of the boats are owned by off-island owners, this was a recipe for disaster..
The boat yard worked pretty well I think they charged about $100/month (100 X 12 X 300 = $360,000) to their customers and kept the place orderly and fairly crime free. Now the DLNR says that it needs a minimum of $460,000 for the lease? Boaters get ready the DLNR is coming for you and by the looks of this fiasco they are coming for you now!
The people who really make out here is the DLNR. This is the greatest scam ever, we pay taxes that fund the DLNR, then they use our money to take public land fence it off and charge us for it. I need to get a job working for the government it is a licence to steel.
Bump up your monthly fee estimate. They have about 95 slots of arourd 9″ width at $120/mo, 172 10′ wide slots at $140/mo. 25 oversize slots at an unknown $$$ rate, and about 70 smaller slots again unknown rate, but certainly over $100/mo. Add in the large area for cradle (off trailer) storage of large inoperable sailboats and such.
Amounts to a big chunk of monthly income. Gentry has removed the storage yard fee list from their website I notice this morning. I have a map of the storage yard and slot designations, so my count is very close.
It looks like my number was low and 140/month for a small piece of dirt seems expensive. There is clearly a demand for boat storage and a huge amount of vacant land there. It seems like DLNR should create a new lot and get the prices down. That would make this a win for everyone as it is it seems like just a win for DLNR. I would also say it is the same story with the airport 15/day parking with all that vacant land seems ridiculous.
In case anyone is curious of the Gentry letter contents, here it is. Notice no mention of continuation, just a threat to withhold the security deposit.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc7d46df2df3314e60640ba4cfe0253e8f34f74075ba3cd42c273b2d50ca7278.jpg
From what I heard, Gentry’s refused to provide boat owner info to DLNR.
Maybe so, out of sheer pique. DLNR has all the owner info through registration but not who is in the yard.
Could be Gentry just refused to share who the boat owners in the storage yard were out of more spite, just to continue the effect of their idiot letter had on us all.
Wife did call DLNR that immediately gave us the info for the new yard management.
Buy a small boat. They are much less expensive to purchase and maintain. They are easier to trailer, launch, retrieve and wash down which means you’ll use it more often. Owning a small boat that fit’s your needs and budget is fun.
simple translation……more money…..
This =’s Boat Owners bend over and they will put the hairdryer on your bunghole and then insert. Which equal’s it going to hurt!!!
Hopefully not. There’s still plenty of fat in the deal.
The DLNR needs to negotiate a LOT better on behalf of the taxpayers. This was a no bid, sweetheart deal given to Gentry’s for many years (since 2003).Gentry’s had no risk, no mortgage, paid no property taxes. Just collected almost a half a million dollars a year to collect checks on a dirt lot with very little overhead. A simple bidding process increased the DLNR’s income over two hundred percent on the parking lot. And they only made the contract open to bids because the attorney general said they have to! Now look how nasty Gentry’s is being to the boat owners that paid them millions on a dirt parking lot.