One of the highlights of the year in the financial world is invariably Warren Buffet’s letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. It is always thoughtful, open, candid and enlightening. The recently released 2009 letter is no different. Specifically the letter talks about Clayton Homes and the housing industry generally. Here is an excerpt:

The industry is in shambles for two reasons, the first of which must be lived with if the U.S. economy is to recover. This reason concerns U.S. housing starts (including apartment units). In 2009, starts were 554,000, by far the lowest number in the 50 years for which we have data. Paradoxically, this is good news. People thought it was good news a few years back when housing starts – the supply side of the picture – were running about two million annually. But household formations – the demand side – only amounted to about 1.2 million. After a few years of such imbalances, the country unsurprisingly ended up with far too many houses. There were three ways to cure this overhang: (1) blow up a lot of houses, a tactic similar to the destruction of autos that occurred with the “cash-for-clunkers” program; (2) speed up household formations by, say, encouraging teenagers to cohabitate, a program not likely to suffer from a lack of volunteers or; (3) reduce new housing starts to a number far below the rate of household formations. Our country has wisely selected the third option, which means that within a year or so residential housing problems should largely be behind us, the exceptions being only high-value houses and those in certain localities where overbuilding was particularly egregious. Prices will remain far below “bubble” levels, of course, but for every seller (or lender) hurt by this there will be a buyer who benefits. Indeed, many families that couldn’t afford to buy an appropriate home a few years ago now find it well within their means because the bubble burst.

For those interest in Maui Real Estate the bold is obviously the most interesting part of the text.

Kai Ani Village is being developed by Victory Development Inc (Victory) , a Golden Nugget award winning,  California based, smart growth, real estate development company. Chief Executive Todd Liebl has over 30 years of development experience in projects ranging from commercial to multi-family to high-end residential projects. In total, Victory Development has created in excess of one thousand units in new projects and has demonstrated the agility and insight to thrive in both the best and most difficult of real estate markets.

Victory creates all its projects with an awareness of the aesthetics and cleaner environment that comes with green building. Selection of location, a focus on energy efficiency, lower maintenance and conservation of the environment all play major roles in Victory’s ongoing ability to offer state of the art properties.

All of this experience has come together to create Kai Ani Village, Maui’s newest mixed use condominium project. The project is in a supremely walkable location, boasts extensive use of energy saving materials and architecture and offers the most modest of monthly maintenance fees. Most recently Kai Ani  Village has completed a comprehensive refinancing that completely eliminated any bank debt and put the project on optimal financial footing for completion.

Todd Leible has never left a project incomplete. Come and see Kai Ani Village!

Earlier this week the Maui news published a story discussing the issues facing commercial properties on Maui. We’d like to address that article and contrast some of the points made with the reality of the live-work units at Kai Ani Village.

The vacancy rate for retail, office and industrial space is estimated to have doubled to about 5 or 10 percent, depending on the type of retail center and the location, while the poor economy keeps typically free-spending tourists away, said Grant Howe, Commercial Properties of Maui LLC founder and managing general partner…Hit extra hard these days are out-of-the-way shopping centers that never performed that well in the first place, the experts said. There’s also added anxiety about a handful of retail centers that went ahead and opened in the midst of the downturn, with only a few tenants lined up, they said.

We should first note that a 5-10% vacancy rate is only disturbing given Maui’s recent past. That is a routine number on the mainland in ordinary times. It is also important to note that this data is an island-wide assessment and includes all qualities of locations from the industrial parts of Kahului and Wailuku to Lahina and Wailea. Kai Ani Village’s location at the corner of one of Kihei’s busiest intersections is difficult to beat with frontage and signage on South Kihei Road. In addition, the residential component of the live-work condominiums separates Kai Ani Village from a more ordinary commercial space.

[Ed] Bello and others said that Maui is in a unique situation when it comes to the commercial real estate market, in that there is a finite amount of space for development, which will eventually help landlords when the economy recovers. It is an island, Bello noted.

Some communities have only a few acres of undeveloped land zoned commercial, Bello said. Maui has become a relatively mature market, he said. The building boom days, with the exception of homes, appears to be over, he said.

These are critical points. Maui is unlikely to ever throw the floodgates for development open to create large amounts of new commercial projects. And whatever is allowed is unlikely to be permitted along major existing commercial corridors in Kihei. So the exceptional Kai Ani Village location, across the street from a supermarket and health care facilities and only short walks from restaurants and theaters and health clubs etc. makes it extremely unlikely that such a live-work offering can be replicated in South Maui.

[Rick Woodford] said the shopping centers near the resorts in South and West Maui tend to be more stable…Wailuku and parts of Kahului are tougher markets.

And Kai Ani Village sits directly in the stability sweet spot.

In short Kai Ani Village is an obvious exception to many of the concerns expressed in the article. Come and see Kai Ani Village and you too will be convinced.