The site of the proposed West Maui Hospital and Medical Center is shown in 2018, the year grading was complete. Developers of the hospital, which has been delayed due to a lack of financing, are now asking the state for $7 million in grant-in-aid funds to help with infrastructure and construction costs. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Developers of the West Maui Hospital are seeking $7 million in grant-in-aid funds to cover costs for the long-awaited medical facility.

Brian Hoyle, president of the West Maui Hospital Foundation, asked the Maui County Council’s Human Concerns and Parks Committee for a resolution of support that could be submitted to the state Legislature and governor as well as individual written letters of support as they seek funding for infrastructure and utility construction costs.

“This project has been ongoing for quite some time,” Hoyle said Monday. “We’re not an unlimited resource. We certainly need funds to complete the process, and as you all know is very expensive. … Our request is for financial help to get it done.”

The West Maui Hospital will consist of a single-story, 30,000-square-foot licensed critical access facility, consisting of five licensed acute care beds — down from 25 beds — and will continue to have a 24-hour emergency department, two to three operating rooms, radiology labs, 24-hour pharmacy and outpatient services.

Services and specialties that the hospital will offer are cardiology, family practice, gastroenterology, general surgery, orthopedics and urology. One or two medical office clinics will provide physician offices and additional outpatient services.

Despite the community’s plea for medical services on the west side, the hospital has run into a number of obstacles since breaking ground in August 2016 after the California-based developer, Newport Hospital Corp., purchased the property in September 2014. The state awarded the project a certificate of need in March 2009.

“The West Maui Hospital will be smaller than we originally anticipated,” Hoyle said Monday. “This will be a small, fully functioning rural-type hospital and it will be open 24 hours and we will accept all patients of any payer source.”

Phase one, which is the priority, will consist of all the required off-site infrastructure and the West Maui Hospital, a five- to six-bed critical access hospital that will take up 5 acres, Hoyle said.

Phase two will consist of a potential medical office/clinic building that would include up to 150 assisted living facility units on the remaining 9.9 acres of the West Maul Hospital and Medical Center site. About 30 units will be designated for affordable senior housing.

The site is located on 15 acres makai of Kaanapali Coffee Farms on Kakaalaneo Road and is fully entitled, with mass grading, drainage and on-site infrastructure already complete.

Hoyle said the construction for the off-site infrastructure, such as water (provided by Hawaii Water Service) and sewer lines, commenced in 2020 after receiving all the necessary approvals, and work continues today. There’s enough funding to complete this portion of the project, Hoyle said, but all attempts at obtaining private funding to support ongoing work have failed due to lack of state and county financial support.

This is why the nonprofit West Maui Hospital Foundation is pursuing the Hawaii state grant-in-aid request for $7 million to cover and offset the cost of capital improvements, including the design and engineering, construction of on- and off-site infrastructure and utilities, and connection fees.

“If we spend money now, we won’t have it for the project later,” he said. “We anticipate that the services that we’re putting in now on the existing Kakaalaneo Drive will be useful in the future, so it’s really an investment, not just for the hospital, but for future development that will incorporate a lot of affordable housing and needs of the community that will be serviced by these improvements that we’re putting in.”

Hoyle is hoping to receive support from the committee and the full County Council to recommend to the Legislature to approve the grant-in-aid request.

Total development costs are about $38.5 million. Newport Hospital Corporation has already spent over $20 million to date on the property, development, governmental entitlements, building and site planning, engineering, consulting, on/off-site construction and other related fees.

There is no debt on the property, Hoyle noted, but “we are asking for help from the state to complete the off-site infrastructure.”

The foundation is also proceeding with an application with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provides federal loans for such projects, to finance the hospital’s structure.

They continue to seek and fundraise for other private funding, too, as Newport Hospital Corp. plans to “make up the difference” of what is not covered by federal, state and county support.

“We’re committed to this project, we’ll do what it takes, it’s just having to piece together all the different components and the grant-in-aid is one of them,” Hoyle said.

If and when the county may consider financing the West Maui Hospital in the future, Hoyle hopes that the council would mull providing direct grants to purchase equipment and services, provide matching funds, budgeting in funds to assist with construction, waiving permit fees and other requests.

“We’re making the ask in really just a polite way, ‘is there something you can help us with?'” he said. “We welcome anything that you’re willing to provide in the effort.”

West Maui has no acute care hospital or skilled nursing care facilities, which has proven to be dangerous for residents and visitors who need emergency attention and have to travel to Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku, the island’s primary hospital, Hoyle said.

The West Maui Hospital would be the first new hospital on Maui since Maui Memorial opened in Wailuku in 1952, according to the West Maui Hospital Foundation.

Hoyle said that this first-responding hospital is not meant to compete with Maui Memorial Medical Center, but rather add to existing services and open another opportunity for services and jobs.

Despite the local shortage in health care staff, Hoyle believes that hiring doctors and medical personnel will “not be a problem” because of the job opportunities at the brand-new facility.

“We need people to stay on Maui,” he said.

A handful of testifiers spoke at the committee meeting on Monday and voiced their support of the project, urging the council to do the same.

Among them was West Maui Rep. Angus McKelvey, who said he’s supportive of any endeavor to secure grant-in-aid funding that would keep the project moving forward, bring medical care access to the west side and generate health care job opportunities.

“To get this thing to fruition is super important,” McKelvey said. “I think this grant-in-aid will help to do that.”

The committee plans to discuss the item further at a later date to vote whether to recommend a resolution of support, among other materials.

“Let’s get this done,” committee Chairwoman Tasha Kama said. “I personally would like to see this hospital up and running within four years.”

Council Chairwoman Alice Lee also said she’d back a resolution for the hospital.

“I’ll be in support of that when the time comes,” Lee said.

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.