User:MaryGaulke/sandbox/Ulupono Initiative requests

Hi! Fleshing out these COI edit requests for the Controversies section per the above feedback.


 * Add to beginning of section, to set up context for the first paragraph:
 * Citing regulatory challenges, Ulupono announced in January 2019 that it would discontinue planning for Hawaii Dairy Farms, a proposed 557-acre dairy farm in Mahaulepu Valley, Kauai.


 * Update
 * Honolulu-based Ulupono received $875,000 in state tax credits under a 2008 law that created incentives for landowners to preserve prime farmland for agricultural use in perpetuity. Ulupono said in a written statement that it is disappointed that Hawaii Dairy Farms didn’t succeed but that the tax credit program provided an incentive to take on risk with the project it estimated would cost $17.5 million.
 * to
 * Honolulu-based Ulupono had received $875,000 in state tax credits designed to encourage landowners to preserve farmland for agricultural use. Ulupono said that the tax credit program allowed the organization to take on risk, with a total estimated project cost of $17.5 million.
 * The Dairy Herd link is no longer online; digging up an archive link shows it's an AP story, so I swapped in the original AP source. This link confirms all the information, so I took out the additional source. Also did some minor copy editing for readability.


 * Update
 * Ulupono is the majority owner of the Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning project after having made an initial investment on August 5, 2013 and forcibly buying out most of the remaining shareholders.
 * to
 * Ulupono first invested $1 million in Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning in August 2013; in November 2014, Ulupono Initiative and Capital Cooling purchased a majority stake in the company.
 * The source doesn't confirm the "forcibly buying out" claim, nor could I find a source that did. I dug up additional sources to clarify and confirm the "majority owner" claim (not confirmed by the source currently used) and revised the wording to reflect the sources.


 * Delete
 * The proposed $250 million project was appropriated State of Hawaii government backed Special Purpose Revenue Bonds in 2005 of up to $48 million with extensions in 2010 and 2015; in 2007 of up to $20 million with an extension in 2012; and in 2009 of up to $77 million with extensions in 2014 and 2019 (expiration in June 30, 2024) after consistently not completing the project in time. The Hawaii State Legislature did not renew the Special Purpose Revenue Bond allocation from 2005 in the 2020 legislative session.
 * If I'm not mistaken, this is WP:OR. I couldn't find RS coverage of all this information.


 * Update
 * On December 19, 2020, Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning announced it was abandoning its development efforts and would wind down its operations by the end of January 2021, citing "financial sustainability could not be assured".
 * to
 * Ulupono invested more than $6 million in the project. In December 2020, Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning announced it would conclude its operations by the end of January 2021, citing rising construction costs.
 * Pulled in another source and a more specific reason for the closure per the source. Also brought forward the $6 million investment mentioned later to appear chronologically.


 * Delete
 * "Two years ago officials told Pacific Business News they had finalized a deal with the state to cool seven state office buildings and the state Capitol and said they expected to break ground in late 2019, but that never happened". Murray Clay, Ulupono’s president and a Honolulu Seawater board member, said the decision to call off the project was not easy. "Letting go of our dream is not easy," he said in a statement. "Despite all of the environmental benefits and the project’s ability to help move our state toward greater energy self-sufficiency, it became clear it would not have been prudent to pursue this further." "Ulupono invested more than $6 million into the project".
 * The $6 million figure is now noted above. The other quotes, including the statement from Ulupono, strike me as more detail than is relevant or notable.


 * Update
 * In March 2017, Ulupono released its Honolulu rail system public-private partnership study that argued the City and County of Honolulu project should be restructured to a public-private partnership. Central to its findings, the P3 analysis concluded that the Honolulu Rail Transit Project remains dependent on public funding to close the $2 billion funding gap. Delays in identifying the funding source could further delay the project, potentially costing the taxpayers of Hawaii close to $114 million per year.
 * to
 * In March 2017, JLL released a report commissioned by Ulupono claiming that the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) could save up to $570 million on construction of the Skyline rail system by working with private contractors. The analysis concluded that the project remained dependent on public funding to close the $2 billion funding gap. Delays in funding could further delay the project, potentially costing the taxpayers of Hawaii up to $114 million per year.
 * Added a source and revised to reflect the source accurately. Added a wiklink to the Skyline rail system.


 * Update
 * The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, which was trying to get a handle on the $10 billion Honolulu proposed rail system, hired Ernst and Young Infrastructure Advisors to study whether P3 was a viable option.
 * to
 * In response to Ulupono's report, HART worked with Ernst & Young to investigate possible public-private funding models.
 * Added a source, revised per the source, and added a wikilink to EY.


 * Delete
 * “Ronald Tutor, CEO of Los Angeles-based Tutor Perini Corp. disclosed in a July 29 call with investors that his construction company is part of a team that’s competing against one other joint venture for rail’s P3 award. As part of the deal, the team that’s selected would build rail’s remaining four miles and eight stations into downtown Honolulu. HART has estimated that construction work to cost around $1.4 billion. However, during the call Tutor said his company’s bid was ‘over $2 billion”.
 * The source article doesn't mention Ulupono, nor can I identify a connection.


 * Update
 * The City and County of Honolulu announced on September 25, 2020 that it is pulling out of the effort to land a private-sector partner to complete construction and operate the 20-mile system during its first 30 years. Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation said they’re still trying to find a way to move forward on a process that has already taken two years.
 * to
 * In September 2020, the city announced it was withdrawing from the effort to land a private-sector partner on the rail project.
 * Shifted to past tense and removed extra citations. Condensed some detail (i.e. the hypothetical partner's expected role) that doesn't seem relevant to Ulupono. Removed the final sentence since it has been superseded by subsequent updates, below.


 * Update
 * Subsequently, the City and County of Honolulu announced on November 20, 2020 that it is canceling its public-private partnership efforts after two unsuccessful years. "Precisely what caused the P3 pursuit’s failure hasn’t been disclosed, although one of the companies competing for the contract shared in an earnings call this summer that its proposal was hundreds of millions of dollars more than what HART and the city had budgeted for the remaining construction. At the HART board’s meeting earlier Friday (November 20, 2020), Robbins said that HART had spent at least $10 million on outside consultant work for the now aborted P3 pursuit".
 * to
 * HART shared that it was canceling the public-private effort two months later.
 * The lengthy quote from the source seems unnecessary.


 * Add an update with the most recent information immediately after the text from the previous bullet:
 * An 11-mile section of the Skyline rail opened in June 2023.


 * Update
 * Ulupono helped found, expand, and is the Chair of the Board of Directors for Bikeshare Hawaii.
 * to
 * Ulupono has provided funding to Bikeshare Hawaii, which runs the Biki bike-sharing program launched in 2017.
 * Swapped in a source that clarifies Ulupono's relationship to Bikeshare Hawaii, and added a brief description of what the organization does for clarity. (In the current article, the next sentence mentions Biki without defining it.)


 * Update
 * Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Biki will cut services by 60% including limiting call center hours and bike rebalancing and "without new financial support, the program may not be able to sustain itself much longer.”
 * to
 * Biki announced in April 2021 that due to revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, it would cut services by up to 60 percent.
 * Switched to past tense and removed unnecessary quote.


 * Add more recent information immediately after the text from the previous bullet, to the end of the section:
 * By October 2021, returning tourism had led to an increase in Biki use, and the organization claimed it was able to make less deep cuts than initially anticipated. Biki marked six years in operation and nearly six million rides in June 2023.