Gensiro Kawamoto

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Gensiro Kawamoto

Gensiro Kawamoto is a Japanese billionaire, who invested in Hawaiʻi real estate in the late 1980s, when he bought more than 170 properties, including many Oʻahu homes^[1].

1 Kāhala Avenue Mission
2 Controversy
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Kāhala Avenue Mission

In 2006, Kawamoto announced that he would rent some of the 18 homes he owns on Kāhala Avenue, most purchased for between $2 million and $20 million, to native Hawaiian families for $150 - $200 per month.^[2]

On March 22, 2007, the first three houses were rented. The initial tenants were:

Dorie-Ann Kahale, who had been working at a local telecommunications company while living in a homeless shelter;
Lyn Worley, a divorced clerk working at the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, who was about to lose her lease on her previous home; and
the Gusman family.^[3]

Kawamoto has stated that at least Kahale and her five daughters will not be charged rent. They will be expected to pay for utilities.^[4] In a letter, Kawamoto encouraged his tenants to "use this opportunity as [their] springboard so that [they] can reach even higher in the future."^[5]

[edit] Controversy

Kawamoto owns dozens of office buildings in Tokyo under the name Marugen and has been buying and selling real estate in Hawaiʻi and California since the 1980s, and has been accused of making money by driving real estate values down by various methods without respecting the current owners, buying them out and then selling them when the price increased.

He has been criticized for evicting tenants of his rental homes on short notice so he could sell the properties, as in 2002 when he gave hundreds of California tenants 30 days to leave.

Two years later, he served eviction notices to tenants in 27 Oʻahu rental homes, mostly in pricey Hawaiʻi Kai, saying they had to leave within a month. He said he wanted to sell the houses to take advantage of rising prices.

Some neighbors are unhappy with Kawamoto's plan, speculating that he is trying to drive down real estate values so he can snap up even more homes.

"Everyone's paying homage to him, but in reality, he's the problem," said Mark Blackburn, who lives down the street from Kahale's new home when interviewed by CNN on March 2007. "Houses are homes. They're made to live in; they aren't investment vehicles." In response, Kawamoto has responded by saying that the neighbors should leave if they don't want to live next to Hawaiians.