ADC Squatters: Last March, Environment Hawaiʻi reported on Pacific Biodiesel’s rent-free use of 1.53 acres of land owned by the Agribusiness Development Corporation. The ADC’s “Hawaiʻi Agribusiness Plan 2025” report, dated January 2026, states that the parcel, in Shipman Industrial Park just south of Hilo, “is currently vacant but being evaluated as a strategic site for agribusiness processing, distribution, and/or value-added manufacturing.”
Yet Pacific Biodiesel continues to occupy the land. As of late January, dozens of its tanks were parked on the lot, which adjoins the company’s refinery.
It is not just the state that is losing money. County property tax records do not reflect any encumbrance on the property, whose market value is pegged at $750,400. The state pays no taxes on unencumbered land, but property taxes on an adjoining vacant lot, of identical market value, come to nearly $8,000 a year.
ADC’s asset manager Lyle Roe was asked about the ongoing occupancy of ADC land by Pacific Biodiesel. The ADC response was to treat the query as a Uniform Information Practices Act request, stating that the agency “requires additional time to respond to the request in order to avoid an unreasonable interference with its other statutory duties and functions.”
The form response noted as well that the agency would notify Environment Hawaiʻi “within a reasonable time not to exceed twenty business days” of its decision as to whether it would even provide an answer.
For background, see the “Pacific Biodiesel Occupies ADC Land in Keaʻau; No Lease, No Rent,” Environment Hawaiʻi, March 2025.
Cart before Horse: In November, the Agribusiness Development Corporation approved issuance of a permit to Kun Hu Farm to utilize 136 tillable acres in Central Oʻahu. Because “a slightly substantial financial investment by the applicant will be necessary to clear and prepare the premises for planting,” the annual rental rate of $1,800 per acre – or $150 per acre per month – was discounted to $75 per acre per month for six months. After that, the full rent, amounting to $244,800 a year, would be in effect until the first rental reopening, in the tenth year of the permit. Crops to be grown on the site included basil, taro, dragon fruit, and purple sweet potato.
In January, the ADC had to back up a bit. As stated in the staff submittal to the ADC board, “At the time of the November 2025 meeting, ADC’s staff were unaware of the existing permit” over 24 acres of the same land. They were “now requesting the cancellation of this permit so that a new license can be issued to Kun Hu Farms [sic].”
ADC property manager Alison Neustein explained that in November, staff didn’t believe that revoking the permit to Robert’s Equipment Service would require board approval. “We were hoping we could just cancel it …, but the attorney general recommended taking it to the board to approve.”
Under the RP, issued in February 2023, Robert’s Equipment Service was paying $14 per acre per year. Following board approval of the termination, Robert’s was to be given 30 day’s notice to vacate.
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