HPP road upgrades continue

Property owners in Hawaiian Paradise Park received a status update Sunday on the $12 million, long-term paving project on roads within the Puna subdivision.

Paving is being done in phases. According to Frank Annin, former president of the Hawaiian Paradise Park Owners' Association, three of the first 10 miles of phase one, which was started in April, have been completed. Roads getting new blacktop are 1st, 7th, 16th and 27th, K and E streets and Paradise Ala Kai Drive. The first phase should be completed in early fall.

Phase two, according to HPPOA, will also include Shower and Kaloli drives, two of the main arteries of the subdivision, from 21st Street and makai.

Piper Jaffray & Co., a San Francisco investment bank, issued the $12,085,000 bond to the HPPOA a year ago, Annin said.

"The roads that get paved need to result in a reduction of maintenance costs," Steven Gortler, a vice president of the investment bank, told a general membership meeting. "It's important that we as a bank make the association live up to that promise."

Gortler said $10.35 million of the loan, which carries 6.92 percent yearly interest for its 20-year term, was issued to HPPOA for the project. The remainder is placed in reserve.

"This is in the event you have any problems meeting the debt," Gortler told property owners. "He said that "a bond is no different than a mortgage. Bond is a fancy word for a loan."

The 137 miles of roads in the subdivision are all private. Property owners pay annual road maintenance fees, which are raised 10 percent per year. Gortler said the HPPOA board told him the fees would continue to be raised 10 percent per year as long as necessary.