Pacific Business News reports that the 1.4 million square foot regional shopping mall planned by Debartolo Development has received final approval upon Hawaiian Homes Commission's approval of the environmental impact statement for the project.  Debartolo Development has selected Nordic PCL as the general contractor for Phase I.  The new development is hoped to create 21,000 construction…

West Hawaii Today reports that Maryl Construction has protested its apparent disqualification as low bidder on the Kaloko Housing Project in Kona.  Apparently, Maryl's $3.9 million dollar bid failed to identify all of the subcontractors it intended to use on the Project.  Maryl says the reason it did so is the Department of Public Works'…

Mediation as a mandatory precursor to litigation is a common feature in construction contracts.  What happens when mediation runs afoul of the timing requirements of a bond claim?  Does a contractor's failure to pursue and complete contractually mandated mediation prior to filing its bond claim subject its bond claim to dismissal?  No, according to the…

Boston-based First Wind and Hawaiian Electric Company have received approval from the Public Utilities Commission to move forward with the largest wind energy project in Hawaii.  The project is expected to generate as much as 2.3 megawatts of electricity that will be sold to the electric company at a fixed price for the next 20…

Adding to the growing number of courts that have rejected the logic that held sway in Hawaii’s Group Builders decision, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently predicted the Colorado Supreme Court would hold that property damage caused by defective construction could qualify as an occurrence under a standard commercial general liability insurance policy, and…

Going into 2011, UHERO anticipated decent growth in Hawaii’s construction sector, fueled in part by active rail construction.   That did not happen.   Instead, hampered by litigation, first over the sufficiency of the survey of ancient Hawaiian burial sites, then by bid protests over the rail car manufacturer chosen for the job, and then the EIS lawsuit…

by Anna H. Oshiro

Fellow construction attorney Karin Holma and I will be giving a talk about the Group Builders decision with the GCA this Friday.  We'll talk about the current status of the case, how and when the Supreme Court could finally review the case, and whether the passage of Act 83 has had

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Gypsum is a soft mineral (2H2O∙CaSO4). It is hardened and pressed between 2 paper liners to form a panel of drywall. Naturally occurring mineral gypsum forms when a body of water slowly evaporates. Synthetic gypsum is derived from the by-products of electric power plants. Nearly half of America’s electricity is produced from coal, generating about

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