I noticed this Big Island Hui blog posting about the The Villages of Aina Le’a project.Robert Wessels, the managing partner of DW Aina Le’a Development, LLC, has had a pretty checkered past. According to this Environment Hawaii article, he tried (and failed) to open the third largest Indian casino in the United States and was involved in a waste oil refinery (which ultimately went bankrupt and was turned into a super fund site).
However none of this compares to the time-share scam he and Ho`olae Paoa were allegedly a part of about 20 years ago. This resulted in lawsuits being filed in Nevada and Hawaii.
Ho`olae Paoa is ironically now the CEO of Bridge Aina Le’a, LLC .Bridge Aina Le’a sold The Villages at Aina Le’a project to Robert Wessels firm.
DW Aina Le’a Development, LLC was able to resuscitate this project earlier this year by reaching a 62 million dollar financing agreement with Capital Asia Group. They’ve been advertising on line seeking investors to buy a share of the development (here,and here).
DW Aina Le’a recently had the groundbreaking for this project.However in light of the information presented above I wonder if this project will ever get completed ?
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:22 AM
” I am a resident of Las Vegas and being a time share owner I have personal knowledge of the time share reorganization in the mid-eighties. Mr Wessels was brought in by Geico Financial and the Director of the Nevada department Real Estate to sort through the timeshare sales contracts and finish development of the properties to get timeshare owners what they had bought. Mr Wessels actions protected the owners and certainly he was not involved in a “scam”. I believe you should research the facts before misleading people’s thoughts.
Syl
November 14th, 2009 at 9:53 AM
I did do my research about this. Why was Mr. Wessels involved in this lawsuit then if he wasn’t involved in this alleged scam ?
November 21st, 2009 at 8:16 AM
All of the players have a checkered and scarred past. Mr. Wessels has tried, failed and succeeded in many businesses here and off-shore and Mr. Dunnington is newly involved in construction, but was in night clubs with lawsuits and shady owners beforehand. I would hope my dentist or doctor went strictly to medical school and strictly provided medical care, not involved in auto mechanics and theme parks, etc. These builders should be builders. They should not be bouncing from one failed business to another and land upon our shores with broken promises. I want them to succeed and may even hope to get a job from them, but it looks like were along for the ride.
March 12th, 2010 at 10:10 PM
It definitely sounds like something the community will regret later, doesn’t it?
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:46 PM
This definitely seems like a scam. Proposals offering 30% returns and adverts with broken English. The principals don’t have an office phone number and their web-site offers stock photography. For the largest real-estate undertaking on the island, shouldn’t they be above board and reachable?
April 1st, 2010 at 2:15 AM
I was wondering if any of you has seen the progress on the development of aina le’a? How many town houses have been completed? How is the infrastructure being done? Instead of looking at their past, why don’t you look at what has been done now to ensure the completion of the project? Was inform that they are going to launch the town houses to the locals first. DW saved the project by buying from Bridge. What would have happen if Bridge still owns the land? It will be a pretty eye sore for years to come.
After what had happened to the America Banks in the crisis, do you think anyone in the management board would dare to offer a loan to any company so easily? At least Bank America has offered financing package to the buyers. Let me ask a question? If you are staying at Hilo and you are working in the West Hawaii, will you jump the chance to move when you are offered a good package? It takes around 4 hours of your traveling time to and back from your workplace.
April 1st, 2010 at 5:33 PM
The developers have not completed any of the townhouses yet as far as I understand. It should be interesting to see if the LUC deems the developer is in compliance with these incomplete townhouses. The LUC can revert the classification of the property back to conservation if the developer deemed not in compliance with the LUC’s imposed conditions.
The past history of this project raises has raised a lot of questions about the future viability of this project. So, I’m sorry that you are disgruntled that I brought these issues to forefront.
April 2nd, 2010 at 4:31 AM
Which means you never get to see the place now?I have a friend who is staying at Hilo. He was the one who informed me that dozen of houses are up and doing the interior right at the moment. I really feel people are against him because of the development he is doing right now as a large numbers of locals are working at the resorts situated at there. It really can damage the system of living at Hilo if most of them moved. So don’t listen, take a look at there.
Development of such a big piece of land takes time. How long did Hilo take to become what it is after the last tusnami? I just hope people will not take him as a saint to turn the land within a short period of time.
April 11th, 2010 at 6:09 AM
If townhouses are up and they are doing interiors, how do we reach them to take a site survey ? Why do they hide behind this vail of mystery? Who is Steve Dunnington, Robert Wessels — they’re unreachable when I make inqueries. I’m as interested in potential affordable housing and perhaps new jobs as the next person, but please, this has been clouded in such duck and cover.
April 14th, 2010 at 11:12 PM
Hi, I am JL from Malaysia.
Recently I have a friend is introducing me this “Villages of Aina Le’a” Project. And saying this investment is only USD $9,600 per unit, and has a guaranteed return of 30% over 30 months.
He is only an agent, and only for 1 month he manage to sell 2 units to people and earn the commission about RM5,000++.
I am really curious will this project succeed for 30 months? or only until end of the year 2010?
Any other sources I can check for this project?
April 27th, 2010 at 6:12 AM
Hi Miwa, You can try to take a look at there provided you can go in. The entrance is at the junction of Mauna Lani Drive if I am not wrong. For goodness sake, if the project is not completed, do you think they will compromise your safety on site? If everyone wants to take a look, how are they going to ensure your safety. Why don’t you try to ask around on those who are working inside? I am sure they will open to public once it is launched. Or you can go goggle live to purchase a satellite view then you can see the houses being build.
Hi JL, well you can take a look at their contract on what kind of assurance they can give you? I can understand where you are coming from as over the years we were exposed to estimate projection and long time frame. Well its a good investment to me if the gains is assured and the time frame is short. Low risk low returns, of course you can’t expect to be high returns on this.
There is only 2 options for you.
1) Wait for the houses to be sold out and cursing yourself when others are taking their gains. Then you will surely join in on whatever projects your friend has.
2)Meet your friend again and discuss over the assurance issue by clearing all your doubts.
April 28th, 2011 at 7:57 AM
We all want the Villages to succeed. We all want better commutes and jobs. It’s not fair to point fingers at those of us who are skeptical. 30% return on investment mostly which is being raised off-shore and vendors and contractors already souring at not being paid. We all understand Rome wasn’t built in a day or in this case Hilo, however, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and looks like a duck – hmmmmmm?