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Bishop Museum selling Waipio Valley
#1
It isn't Puna, but it sure is the East side of Hawaii, and many in one are concerned about the other...

I had more than one email in my inbox this morning pointing to an article in Pacific Business News entitled:

Hawaii's Bishop Museum to sell Big Island properties valued at $10M+

which in part reads:

The Bishop Museum plans to sell two properties on the Big Island of Hawaii valued at more than $10 million as part of its new operating model, the Honolulu-based museum confirmed with PBN on Friday.

Museum executives assessed the institution’s assets and have identified its 537-acre Waipio Valley land and Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden garden property as the first to be sold.

The move will allow the museum to expand its engagement and outreach focus at its main Kapalama campus on Oahu, Bishop Museum President and CEO Blair Collis told PBN.


more at link:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/...sland.html

It's been coming for a long time, but with a lot of hemming and hawing, and this is the first time that I know of that it's been clearly stated. A few years ago, as the article points out, a few in state politics were trying to move a bill through to fund the purchase, but then Bishop Museum wouldn't clearly say what they intended to do.

More recently there has been a lot of back door maneuvering at the county level to consider using the Open Space funds to buy out Bishop Museum's Waipio Valley land, with both Valerie Poindexter and the mayor floating the idea to those that would be directly effected in an initial effort to see what sort of response they got. It will be every interesting to see how this all plays out.

The humbug with the Museum's lands in the valley is that it isn't in a consolidated chunk but rather is all over the valley with lots of private land in-between as a patchwork. You can see this graphically on the colored version of the consolidated Hawaii County Tax Map as seen here:

http://bigislandmappingproject.com/waipiotax.html

By clicking on the color map it will open a larger version and the Museum's lands are in green. Plus they own most of the gray, and a few others. That map's coloring is based on the county's notes on the map itself and are not conclusive, but rather give the viewer a good idea of what is the situation.
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#2
I wonder what the property is valued at for tax purposes.

It will be sad if it goes corporate. Hard to see Waipio improving under investor ownership.
Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator
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#3
Let me go get my popcorn!
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#4
You're going to bring GMO popcorn into this?!
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#5
http://i11.pixs.ru/storage/4/3/3/wwwpakl...356433.gif
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#6
Lot of changes going on and some might start happening rapidly. 99 year leases are expiring and the future mindset has changed a lot since 1915. It also seems the state changing the deductions and tax breaks for what can be classified as ag land is going to affect large land trusts. It's always about the land around here, replace the word land with aina.

"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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#7
I'm guessing that the Bishop Museum is a non-profit foundation and probably tax exempt. Does the real estate tax apply to non-profits in Hawaii County? I found an on line guide to Hawaii non-profit taxation that says "properties used exclusively for charitable purposes" are exempt, but it didn't mention income producing or leased out properties owned by non-profits.
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#8
In poking thru the county property tax site, some of their properties are paying zero, and some are paying property taxes. Assuming this means that land that is leased out or in crop production is being taxed.
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#9
quote:
Originally posted by dakine

I wonder what the property is valued at for tax purposes.

In 2015 I paid $500.00 on 3 acres of ag land with a shed on it. The County values the shed at 5k. Otherwise it's all lo'i. So I suspect $166.67 per acres is a good guess? Bishop Museum, according to that article, has 537 acres. 537 x 166.67 = 89,500.00


Curious, does the shed have a permit or how did they know about it?
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#10
Have you ever looked at the county's tax website ?

They use google earth and bing birdseye view and can see what's there.
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