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The Star Advertiser ran an interesting piece on some of the issues faced by high rises, particularly in coastal states like Hawaii due to the corrosion from sea water spray.
Tower collapse risks extremely low, but Hawaii — like Florida — has extra building maintenance challenges
I'm listening in on my AOAO town hall meeting now on the sewer project (no update yet on the sprinkler system efforts . . . I think the board is looking to wrap up the contracting for the sewer project first).
Some interesting points:
-Revised project estimate is approximately $4.5 million (down from earlier estimates of $6.5 million), which is good. Note, at the higher estimate, if every one of the 198 owners paid the same amount (which won't be the case) at the interest rate charged, it would be roughly $30k per owner.
-We need 67% of homeowners to approve the loan request or else a special assessment will be levied. So far, 41% of the owners have voted to secure the loan, and 5% of the owners voted against the loan. Still a lot of outstanding owners who need to get a move on it! I can cut a check today for whatever my portion will be, but would prefer the bank loan (from BOH), especially at these interest rates.
Well, now they are saying that they only needed 50.01% ownership approval, which they apparently recently received. The owners approved the maximum bank loan amount from Bank of Hawaii, which is for $6.5 million, although the price tag is still listed at $4.5 million.
During the June meeting, I think I recall them mentioning that the bank would be open to extending a line of credit (maximum up to $6.5 million and potentially more) to cover the sprinkler system project.
Owners can still pay their entire portion in the form of a lump sum to avoid incurring any interest, but we'd have to do this before the full amount of the loan has been disbursed, whenever that will be. All in all, I'll take the financing as it is a very good rate.
Well, now they are saying that they only needed 50.01% ownership approval, which they apparently recently received. The owners approved the maximum bank loan amount from Bank of Hawaii, which is for $6.5 million, although the price tag is still listed at $4.5 million.
During the June meeting, I think I recall them mentioning that the bank would be open to extending a line of credit (maximum up to $6.5 million and potentially more) to cover the sprinkler system project.
Owners can still pay their entire portion in the form of a lump sum to avoid incurring any interest, but we'd have to do this before the full amount of the loan has been disbursed, whenever that will be. All in all, I'll take the financing as it is a very good rate.
So they're borrowing 4.5 Million for sewer repair and 2.0 Million for Sprinklers, if I'm following the thread correctly. With 200 units that's $32,500 per unit. While it's not fun, it's also not too bad on a per unit basis. The problem would just be if there were multiple major elements that started to fail and require large hit's like this.
Are they able to amortize the loan over 30 years or is it something shorter ?
So they're borrowing 4.5 Million for sewer repair and 2.0 Million for Sprinklers, if I'm following the thread correctly. With 200 units that's $32,500 per unit. While it's not fun, it's also not too bad on a per unit basis. The problem would just be if there were multiple major elements that started to fail and require large hit's like this.
Are they able to amortize the loan over 30 years or is it something shorter ?
They are borrowing the $4.5 million for the sewer repair, but were approved to borrow up to $6.5 for the sewer project, with the understanding that any excess could be applied to the future sprinkler system project; they'd technically cut the association two separate loans if that was to happen. Note, there was mention of potentially increasing the overall loan limit if we need to for the sprinkler system.
I expect my bill to be a little higher than if split equally across 200 units in the grand scheme of things as I own a two bedroom; there are studios, one bedrooms, and two bedrooms at my complex, but the monthly payments should be pretty reasonable based on the low interest rate and the length of the loan period (it's for a 25 year term). Still, I'm happy that the price is considerably lower than the earliest estimates back when the board first started researching the project. I'm even happier that the estimates remain the same today in spite of the supply chain concerns, etc.
On the ownership approval, and picking up on what some of this thread derailed into, I wonder if the Florida condo collapse issue led to a higher response rate as they were struggling to get to where we needed. That's just pure wild speculation and questioning from me. Nothing to actually support it either way.
They are borrowing the $4.5 million for the sewer repair,
I assume you are talking about the waste pipes that connect to all the sinks, toilets that are 50+ years old. My building is planning on that replacement (increasing the capacity so that all the illegal washers will be OK. Also adding hot water recirculators and the sprinklers. We seem more focused on hiring people to plan instead of the actual work. We also are doing elevators, and painting and carpeting.
I think the sprinkler mandate was an over reaction to the Marco Polo fire. Seems some buildings want to play chicken with the city on the sprinklers and assume the mandate will just get pushed out or go away altogether ala Covid/market downturn.
I think the sprinkler mandate was an over reaction to the Marco Polo fire. Seems some buildings want to play chicken with the city on the sprinklers and assume the mandate will just get pushed out or go away altogether ala Covid/market downturn.
What they should've off done is not grandfather the old properties and then it would've cost a lot less money to put them in
I assume you are talking about the waste pipes that connect to all the sinks, toilets that are 50+ years old. My building is planning on that replacement (increasing the capacity so that all the illegal washers will be OK. Also adding hot water recirculators and the sprinklers. We seem more focused on hiring people to plan instead of the actual work. We also are doing elevators, and painting and carpeting.
I think the sprinkler mandate was an over reaction to the Marco Polo fire. Seems some buildings want to play chicken with the city on the sprinklers and assume the mandate will just get pushed out or go away altogether ala Covid/market downturn.
Yep, those are the pipes. In theory, they are supposed to have lasted 70+ years, but they are breaking down considerably sooner than that due to the salt water in the air.
Do you have an idea of how much the process will be for your building? I will say that we are finally getting down to business on this project, but we've been talking about it since at least 2016.
And agree about the sprinkler system being an overreaction. As I've mentioned before, my building does not need a sprinkler system and this has been proved when we had a higher floor fire in 2014; the layout of my building makes it relatively easy to fight fires and the internal materials an burn for hours without a fire jumping to other units.
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