Located across the street from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Walter Dods Jr. RISE Center now sits on what was formerly the site of the Atherton YMCA. Following several years of planning and construction, the new facility opened in August and is now home to hundreds of UH student-residents.
RISE, which stands for Residences for Innovative Student Entrepreneurs, marked the first public-private partnership, or P3, housing project for the university. UH, UH Foundation and Hunt Companies Hawaii partnered to design, build and finance the project.
Amenities were added with student entrepreneurs in mind and include coworking and meeting areas, a recording studio, a classroom, prototyping labs, and more. Meanwhile, UH’s Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship runs educational programming at the center that includes business-focused workshops, lectures, pitch nights and more.
When Pacific Business News recently chatted with key players for this cover story, they also reflected on highlights from the center's first year and the importance of the project.
What was a highlight of RISE’s first year?
Sandra Fujiyama, executive director, PACE: Opening on time, seeing the students move in, talking to the parents and the students that were coming in and seeing how excited they were — those were goosebump moments. ... We’re very grateful that the foundation came in, and we get to be in this space, effectively for free. We don’t have to pay rent because that would be incredibly hard for us, because we don’t revenue generate. Everything we do is free. We want it to be free, so that there’s no barrier to entry. We want everyone to have access to what we’re doing.
Kalbert Young, vice president for budget and finance and chief financial officer, UH System: It was 93%-plus leased up, before it even finished construction. That is significant, on a number of levels. One, clearly, students and parents recognized the attraction [of] this particular facility, the attraction to PACE, and the property’s proximity to UH, but I think it also speaks to the shortage of housing on Oahu — in the general marketplace, and housing that’s available to students.
John Han, COO and CFO, UH Foundation: When we actually got our TCO, the temporary certificate of occupancy saying that students can move in — that feeling was incredible. I thought that would be the height of what the foundation can bring to the table, but [the highlight] is hearing Sandra and Kalbert [talk] about how much the program has come along in a short amount of time.
Hunt Companies Hawaii Senior Vice President Michael Lam shared his thoughts on the significance of the project.
Why was this a project that Hunt Companies Hawaii wanted to be involved in? We believed we were the right private partner to help UH and UH Foundation create this first-of-its-kind entrepreneurship center, given we have completed more than 200 P3 university housing and infrastructure projects around the globe.
We saw an opportunity to bring that experience to support UH and UH Foundation’s vision for RISE, solve a complex real estate challenge and guide a project from entitlement through construction, which included repurposing the landmark Charles Atherton building, built in 1930, and connecting it to two brand new residential wings.
What do you feel is the importance of this project? How do you hope that RISE will impact UH and the larger community? RISE creates an exciting live-learn entrepreneurship center that is very rare to find at universities around the country. RISE provides UH students a unique opportunity to learn 21st century skillsets that can help solve challenges we face here in Hawaii and beyond.
RISE will develop future innovators and entrepreneurs who can further strengthen and diversify our local economy. There is a lot of potential for RISE, and we are thankful to have helped UH and UH Foundation realize their vision.
