On October 31, 2023, architect Tonia Moy emailed Jessica Puff and Mary Kodama of the State Historic Preservation Division’s architecture branch, introducing them to Sushil Garg, the new owner of lands that included the historic Marconi Wireless Telegraph Station on Oahu’s North Shore.
The station was listed as an endangered site by the Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation and the former owner did not have the resources to fix it up, Moy wrote.
“Current owner would like to meet with you guys to discuss what to do (repair!!! And maybe add some other buildings on site) before proceeding much further. He is very interested in maintaining its historic character and is not a developer trying to make a lot of money off of the site.
“Thought he should start off talking with you guys!” Moy wrote.
The next day, Garg sent his own email to Puff and Kodama, asking if they could meet with him the following day. “Looking forward to meeting and getting to share our vision and your guidance on what is possible for this great property,” he wrote.
They agreed to meet via Zoom on November 28, but Garg cancelled at the last minute, stating in an email to Kodama that he had gotten terribly sick from traveling abroad. He suggested rescheduling once he felt better, but asked Kodama to send him information regarding an upcoming training program regarding tax credits for the rehabilitation of historic buildings.
Their next email exchange came on December 8. Kodama asked Garg for his phone number, which she had misplaced, and for him to call her.
“I received some inquiries regarding work being done on the property and I wanted to get more information from you,” she wrote.
It turned out that Garg had been renovating the historic buildings long before contacting SHPD and the roof of the largest and most fragile building — the power house — had collapsed, taking with it some of the walls.
On December 11, Garg emailed Kodama photos of the damaged building that he said had caved in the week prior. He stated that he would be visiting the site with a structural engineer to help with a plan to shore up the remaining walls.
He asked Kodama to advise him on what help he could get with planning and restoring the building. The critical task at hand was to shore up the walls to minimize any further damage, he wrote, adding that he would prefer to restore the structure rather than rebuild it.
“Also, I assume any expense we incur during the process would qualify for Tax Credits,” he wrote.
Kodama’s reply included a Memorandum of Agreement between federal and state agencies, a lender (North Avenue Capital), and the former owners of the lands containing the historic features. The agreement, signed in 2021 as part of the former landowners’ efforts to obtain a USDA-backed loan to construct several agricultural warehouses on adjacent lands, prescribed a planning and review process intended to protect the historic features. (Garg should have already had a copy. In May 2022, when Gargʻs Greystone HI Investments purchased the condominium units that encompassed the historic buildings and features, he signed a partial assignment and assumption of developer’s rights that included the rights and obligations to comply with the MOA.)
Kodama also instructed Garg to submit information to SHPD regarding his proposed emergency work, including a letter stating what happened, what he proposed to address it, site photographs, information or reports from his structural engineer, plans or drawings, and a permit application, if applicable. She also suggested that he also include any planned future work.
Kodama visited the site with Garg on December 13 and in an email a few days later instructed him to cordon off the area and post signs indicating that the area is a safety hazard.
Garg never did provide Kodama with the information she had asked for. His last emails to her were in late December, thanking her for advising him that he could remove tangled rusted iron materials from the collapsed building that had already fallen or been taken down, and also introducing her to Christopher Decker of the state Department of Health, which had also responded to a complaint about the work being done on the historic buildings.
The DLNR Communications office informed Environment Hawaiʻi earlier this year that SHPD staff had stated that they had not been contacted by Garg since December 2023.
Garg’s attorney, Kalani Morse, stated in a November 2024 email to Environment Hawaiʻi that with respect to the MOA, Greystone’s team had been working with SHPD “to determine how to best memorialize the historic restoration work on the structures and finalize approvals for the restoration work in progress.”
Morse also noted that Greystone and Garg are committed to restoring the site to its former glory, “in accordance with all applicable standards and in consultation with all the relevant agencies and organizations that were parties to the MOA.”
In August of last year, the DLNR indicated that SHPD had reached out to the USDA and the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to “do something with the existing MOA,” but had not heard anything from them. SHPD stated in a January email to Environment Hawaiʻi that it would try to reach out to USDA again and relay any response. None was received by press time.
Contested Case
While the MOA established timelines for the submission of an interim stabilization plan (ISP) and a historic preservation and treatment plan to SHPD for review and approval, the agreement lacked enforcement provisions, except for a requirement that the ISP be completed before the City & County of Honolulu issued certificates of occupancy for the agricultural warehouses.
Those deadlines passed well before Greystone purchased the historic properties.
However, on October 27, 2023 — a few days before Moy’s introductory email to SHPD — Makai Ranch vice president Michael Danhour did provide SHPD with a September 2021 historic structure report and a January 2022 engineering report that had been prepared in an effort to comply with the MOA. The latter report warned that the already damaged power house walls were at risk because of their connection to the partially collapsed roof framing.
“If the collapse were to progress, the walls connected to the framing could be further damaged as they are ‘dragged’ down by the weight of the framing,” it stated.
SHPD indicated in late 2024 that it was investigating potential violations stemming from unauthorized work done on the historic site but did not respond by press time to questions about the status of that investigation.
In the meantime, Garg and his companies that own land at Maconi Point have been embroiled in a contested case hearing over violations stemming from the unauthorized clearing of coastal vegetation in the Conservation District in October 2023, habitat for the endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bee.
The DLNR’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands and its Division of Forestry and Wildlife are seeking a total of more than $3.1 million in fines.
In his direct testimony at one of the hearing days in March, Garg explained why he bought lands at Marconi Point.
“We wanted something that’s more in the peaceful and quiet. … I maintained second homes here, mostly condos in Waikiki and Makiki, and just, I guess, a little crazy over there, so we wanted something more peaceful. We wanted someplace with a little bit of land, because Lorene, my wife, she likes gardening, and she likes nature, so we felt that that was someplace that we wanted to have, which has some land we can do some gardening, some nature, maybe some horses some day. So that was the main purpose,” he said.
When asked by Morse whether he had any goals in mind when he bought the Marconi units, Garg replied, “No. When we first discovered it, it was a little scary because it was old buildings, historic buildings. I did not know much about historic buildings and what’s involved with them. I tried to get myself educated when I realized we have to restore them, and since it was part of the historic registration, we had to restore them to the original standards, which could be challenging. So we knew it was a challenge, but then it was an opportunity. The land was beautiful. I think the buildings restored would be beautiful, so we felt this could be an interesting challenge, but eventually it could be a bloody good place for our retirement.”
Garg said he started repairing the historic buildings “probably May or June of 2022.”
He said that Jeremy Henderson, the developer of the Marconi Point Condominiums, had introduced him to Ben Lessary that year. Lessary had done work for Henderson around the project and was eventually hired by Garg, who ended up purchasing several units within the project.
“I was introduced to Ben and Henry [Fong] by Jeremy when I asked him, ‘Hey, I bought this place, but how do I take care of it, maintain the landscaping? And then if I start restoring the building, who do I go to? I don’t know anybody in this area.’ So he said these guys were taking care of it. Henry was doing some of the landscaping work for me, and Ben was doing some of the building repairs, so I went to the property. I met with them. … So I said, ‘Okay. Let me start you with a couple of small projects and see how that works, and if that works, maybe we’ll give you bigger project,’” Garg said.
Morse asked Garg, “Did you learn anything about Ben’s contacts and resources that made you want to hire him to repair the historic buildings at Marconi?”
“Yeah, because in order to repair those buildings, you need different trades. You need plumbing, electrician. So I wanted to make sure that Ben had those contacts to bring those people, of and when needed, and Ben assured and then told me about different people he can bring on board as and when we need them. … During the course of the project, he did,” Garg said.
He added that he had agreed that Lessary would bill him once a week, “and based upon the billing, I would know what people showed up and what work was done.”.
Garg said he spoke to Lessary sporadically as building repairs proceeded through 2022 and 2023, most of the time discussing whether Garg had to order materials that Lessary didnʻt want to pay for directly. “He’d ask me to order that, also rental equipment,” Garg said.
Garg testified that Greystone HI Investments, LLC, paid Lessary (who then distributed payments to various workers) more than $2.6 million for work done between May 2022 and April 2024. “It was a time-and-materials basis. Not all the materials was in there because some materials we paid for directly,” Garg said.
Garg said that Lessary’s repairs to the buildings stopped after he received a stop-work order. In early January 2024, the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting issued two notices of violation that included stop-work orders, one for partial demolition of a historical building and doing electrical and plumbing work without a building permit, and another for renovations and repairs to historical buildings without a building permit.
The notices threatened a triple fee penalty for work started without a building permit. According to the DPP’s website, the compliance deadline was May 14, 2025, but the violations have yet to be corrected. No building permits have yet been applied for.
Morse, Garg’s attorney, did file an application last year with the DPP for a verification of development standards and confirmation of legality, which was approved. Morse also applied for a Special Management Area determination for “minor repair/replacement work (windows, doors, painting, flooring, safety fences),” which was also approved.
— Teresa Dawson
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