Brian Hoyle, president of developer Newport Hospital Corp., said Thursday that there is a 15- to 16-month construction period, which makes completion in December 2019 still “a reasonable date.”

As part of the bond issuance process, a public hearing is required to gauge community support for the hospital. It has been scheduled for 9 a.m. May 22 in Room 212 in the county building in Wailuku. The county Department of Finance is holding the hearing.

Hoyle emphasized that while the informational meeting is being held on Maui, the county and the state will not be guaranteeing or subsidizing the $69 million bond. The nonprofit West Maui Hospital Foundation, of which Hoyle is board president, will own and operate the hospital.

The foundation is seeking private bond funding through Wisconsin Public Finance Authority, which will serve as a conduit to issue the municipal bond and be able to offer funds in $100,000 chunks of federally tax-exempt investments, most likely for institutional lenders.

This is the site of the proposed West Maui Hospital and Medical Center on 15 acres makai of the Ka‘anapali Coffee Farms on Kakaalaneo Road. This photo was taken last month. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Hospital developers hope to float the bonds in the next 60 days with the process currently in the final documentation stage, Hoyle said.

He noted that this is the second bond offering for the project. An initial bond offering in July for $83 million was withdrawn because not all of the bonds were sold, possibly impacted by uncertainty over federal tax reform measures, Hoyle said last year.

This time around, Hoyle said the developers have restructured the offering, reducing the amount sought and improving the plan. In fact, there is now a greater need for the hospital with improved financial forecasts, he said.

“The timing is good. The market is right,” he said.

Part of the restructuring included Newport Hospital donating the land under the hospital to the foundation with an appraised value of $9 million to $10 million, Hoyle said. “That made a huge difference in the bond offering,” he said.

When completed, the 25-bed, full-service hospital will include a 24-hour emergency room, three operating rooms, a 40-bed skilled nursing facility and a 40-unit assisted-living facility. Other features include two medical office buildings and a 40-bed, drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation facility.

The 53,000-square-foot medical complex on 15 acres makai of the Ka’anapali Coffee Farms on Kakaalaneo Road broke ground in August 2016, and the underground infrastructure, which includes water, sewer, electric lines and drainage, has been completed, Hoyle said.

The project has been talked about for at least two decades to serve a community intermittently cut off from Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku by traffic crashes and fires on Honoapiilani Highway. It has its land-use entitlements and received its certificate of need in March 2009.

The hearing is open to the public. For more information, call 270-7865.

* Lee Imada can be reached at leeimada@mauinews.com.