The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) last week was granted an additional $7 million in legal funds to aid in a dispute with Howard Hughes Corp. (HHC) over a parcel of land needed for a 20-mile light-rail project slated for completion in 2031.
The funds are for an eminent domain dispute between HART and HHC subsidiary Victoria Ward. HART requires a two-acre parcel of HHC-owned land in Honolulu’s Kakaako district for a rail station and guideway for the project.
At a meeting last Thursday, the state’s Project Oversight Committee approved two recommended contract amendments to provide an additional $7 million in legal funds toward the land dispute, now totaling $23.3 million. The amendments provide retainers to law firms Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher and Nossaman. Any unused funds will be returned to HART.
HART initiated condemnation proceedings against HHC in December 2017, offering roughly $13.5 million in compensation for the parcel. HHC claimed the land was worth far more, initially demanding more than $100 million and now seeking $200 million, according to slides presented at the meeting.
HHC plans to use the disputed parcel for its mixed-use Ward Village project, which is being developed in part because of the expected increase in property values from the rail project’s construction.
“We certainly hope not to use all of [the funds] if we can get some of the claims eliminated. Hopefully that will make the case go faster, but it’s hard to tell at this time,” HART COO Rick Keene said at the meeting. So far HART has filed 13 court motions in the proceeding and HHC six.
A trial in the proceeding had been set for August 2021; however, the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the date to May 2022.
HART’s rail project is part of the state’s push to become carbon neutral by 2045. The electrically powered line will draw on renewable energy projects the state is aggressively building and is intended to reduce dependency on imported energy sources. HART estimates that the line will reduce energy demand by 3% annually, the equivalent of 5.9 million gallons of gasoline. It is projected to take 40,000 cars off the road every day.