It’s interesting to see what can happen when you’re only paying partial attention.

For years, we’ve been hearing about the possibility of a new UH community college campus in Kona to be built with private funds by the developer seeking to build on a large adjacent property.

An Associated Press story in today’s Star-Bulletin reports the reality that the developers are actually going to contribute a single building rather than a college. Forgive me for being surprised. Apparently Georgina Kawamura, Budget & Finance director, believes other may be surprised as well.

“Many are under the false impression that there will be a four-year university campus or at least a two-year community college,” she said. “With only 25 acres planned for a West Hawaii education center, the residents of the Big Island have been led to believe they are getting something they are not.”

And why should we be surprise? Here’s how the Star-Bulletin reported it just two years ago.

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents selected a partnership of two Atlanta companies yesterday to build two community college campuses on the Big Island, mostly at their own cost.

In return, Hawaii Campus Developers LLC will have the right to build for-profit projects on state land adjoining the campuses.

Estimates of the total cost have ranged from $100 million to several times that amount.

In Hilo a new campus for Hawaii Community College will be built on about 150 acres above Komohana Street near the UH-Hilo “University Park” site of several astronomy administration buildings.

In West Hawaii a new Kona Campus Center planned as a branch of Hawaii Community College would be built on about 80 acres of a 500-acre state parcel mauka of Keahole airport.

Back in 2004, the Advertiser reported:

More projects are on the way. One of the largest is Hiluhilu Development LLC, which is owned by Charles Schwab and local contractor Guy Lam, and is seeking permission to develop 725 acres mauka of the airport.

That project, now known as Palamanui, would include space for a long-sought new Kona campus for the University of Hawai’i, a golf course, 825 homes and about 120 hotel units, said Guido Giacometti, the owners’ representative.

And PBN laid out this list of developer give-backs in a 2005 story:

As part of Palamanui, Lum will build University Village Center, which will include University Village Inn, a 120-room hotel, as well as a 10-acre medical campus, 50-acre research and development park and 28 acres for commercial use.

What happened? It looks like Hilo made off with most of the goodies from this deal. Retracing the history of this project, which as I recall started decades ago with attempts by a politically-connected local hui to push a new campus which would enhance the value of their adjacent lands, would be a most interesting project.

I happened to mention the spate of mini-mansions to a Kahala resident yesterday, and he quickly responded with a description of walking the neighborhood when the fad started.

I used to walk Kahala and name all the monstrosities as they went up:

“The Newark Armory”
“Zero Lotline Deformity”
“Paean to Poor Taste”
“Ostentation Cubed”
“AIA? Nope.”
“Columns Bine”
“Yucko Stucco”
and my favorite, “Good F***ing God.”

Great names. The Honolulu Academy of Arts opens its new exhibit on the architecture of Val Ossipoff this week, and it’s a shame the designers of these Kahala behemoths study Ossipoff’s island adaptations a bit more before throwing up their motel look-alikes.

Yesterday I finally caught up with two months of “picture a week” choices, beginning with these flowers that appeared on the beach one morning back at the end of September. You can start by clicking on this one and work your way forward through the rest of the series. Or you can start with the index to the year to date.