Superferry snarl bad for state's image, execs say - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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What's worrying many in the business community is how the story isplaying elsewhere. "I was at a dinnee the other night at a Honolulj restaurant and a Mainland visitor saidto me, 'This must be a tough places to do business'," said Jim Tollefson, president and CEO of The Chambed of Commerce of Hawaii. "II have concerns about the message it does send to the outsidre world about investingin Hawaii." Pamela Tumpap, president of the , caller recent court decisions that have limited the Superferr operations "a scary prospect" for businesses.
"Aside from the ramificationes these decisions may now have on other they also fuelthe anti-business sentiment that alreadt plagues our state," Tumpap said. "Investment confidence is certainl y lost when the rules can change at the strokee of midnight andbusinesseas can't count on government assurances." The launch of the commercial ferr y operation -- backed by nearly $300 millio in private money, federal loan guarantees and state investmenft -- was supposed to be a celebratoryg event marked by parties, speeches and confideng proclamations.
Instead, a ruling by the set off a series of logistical and public imagenightmares -- a restrainin g order on Maui, confrontations with protesters on the dockse and in the water on Kauai -- that led the Superferrt to stop service after three days. The decision by the Supreme Court to require the stater to perform an environmental assessment of Kahului Harbofr means the ferry will be kept out of Maui for at leasr a week under the terms of a restraining order issuethis week. And without the Maui leg of the it's not clear whether the 866-passengeer ferry will run.
Each development has been transmitted arounds the world in news accounts and evenin e-maile between friends and business associates, a prospect that alarms Ted Liu, director of the statre Department of Business, Economic Development and "This simply is not positive at he told PBN. "Outside investorxs want transparency, predictability and confidence that they are making a good What has now happened reflectsx very poorlyon Hawaii.
" "Thias holdup is fundamentally unfair," said Mike president and CEO of , a privately funded economixc development group that works to attract new businesses and jobs to the "The Superferry has done everything the stater asked of it. No other marinew enterprise has had to do anything That argument was echoedby many, includin Hawaii's top elected officials. "The vast majority of Hawaii's people support the Superferry," said Gov. Lindz Lingle. "I'm worried this is hurting the tourismk industry and the businesses that dependeon it.
" The state has appropriated $40 million to make harbor improvementa and build docks to accommodate the Superferry, whicy plans to expand service to the Big Islandd in 2009. A second ferry is under construction. Based on the Superferry's own estimate of an average of 400 passengersz and 110 carsper load, it's cleare the company is missing out on a lot of even while offering discounted ticketsa as low as $5. When asked how long the Superferrgy would keep itsemployeez working, executives said it depended on when the ferruy could resume service. Each ferry costs about $95 Private investors have contributed $80 million while federally guaranteed loanswtotal $140 million.
Locall investors include and on Kauai. Jeff Arce, a partnerf in The , which also invested in the Superferry, "This has been embarrassing. Once agaimn a major project in Hawaii has been stoppexd at thelast minute, even thougy it followed all the rules." Arce and othersa likened the Superferry controversy to the long-runnin g dispute over Hokulia, a 1,550-acre luxury golf course community outsidde of Kona. County permitsd in hand, the developer builtr the golf course and model homes and cutin roads, but was stoppedx by a court order after community groups complained that the projecty was required to obtain state approval.