OHA narrows land-transfer due diligence, adds Wailupe to review; city to buy conservation easement

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs told its Board of Trustees on a virtual meeting that it has narrowed a multi‑property land‑transfer review to two priority sites and added Wailupe (Wailupe Valley) to its acquisition pipeline after public testimony.

Laurie Walker, co‑lead on the land‑transfer project, said the agency has developed a four‑phase due‑diligence process and is negotiating with a third‑party consultant to perform parts of that work. "We have developed a robust process," Walker said, and the consultant's initial proposal was "much higher than we had anticipated," prompting staff to "value engineer" the scope and assume more internal responsibility for some tasks.

The nut of the matter is timing and cost: Walker said the consultant will be asked to focus first on two properties — identified in the meeting as the highest priorities — while the agency continues internal work on the others. She also said the board will be asked to approve any start of paid due‑diligence work: "Once we start incurring costs for the…