GridZero Founder shares details of his West Maui Resilience Center project objectives.
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Founder/President/CEO Peter Ortmann shares more about GridZero's history and vision.
West Maui Resilience Center - The AngelPreneur Dream Project
The West Maui Resilience Center (WMRC) is a visionary, privately funded, passion-driven owner-operated project proposed on ~70 acres of Maui County land in Lahaina, West Maui, Hawaii . The project aims to be Hawaii’s first fully integrated food, water, and energy resilience campus,, with tourist driven facilities, addressing Maui’s long-term local sustainability and disaster preparedness needs. The conceptual design rendering below is designed for this proposed site, although alternate sites are being considered.
The above proposed project rendering is merely a sample layout designed and to be managed by GridZero Inc. of Las Vegas, for its owner and operator the AngelPreneur Venture Group Inc. (APVG), and Clear Blue Oceans Foundation Inc. (CBO Foundation), an ocean focused non-profit organization. Both Hawaii organizations which will locally run by its founder directly once built. Along with the ongoing support of ClubZERO Rewards members and CBO Foundation sponsors. The WMRC project combines:
The conceptual floor plans for the Aquarium Plaza are shown on the right .More details of the WMRC Businesses & elements are below:
This facility will also manage and showcase a CBO ReliefHUB, a modular & mobile off-grid unit built by GridZero Metal Works. CBO ReliefHUBS consist of modified 40’ shipping containers configured into a 45’ x 45’ facility that can be shipped to and erected within days at any island disaster location. Each will provide power, over 1,200 gallons of drink-ready water, 500 lbs. of cubed Ice daily, Starlink internet access, 8 clean flush toilets and 8 hot showers. CBO Foundation will staff and operate these facilites when required in the field.
Marissa's Reef For Heavenly Helpers (Marissa's Reef) is the signature attraction of the Aquarium Plaza, rooted in a passion to honor our Founders Granddaughter Marissa, lost to a flash flood in August 2005.
It consists of a 50-foot round x 60' tall saltwater aquarium that serves as an aquatic memorial exhibit, with a reef in its center. The exhibit is the blue circle in the above site plan rendering.
Marissa's Reef will be populated with over 50,000 reef fish and related marine life - each named after a child lost due to natural causes (floods, wildfire, hurricane or earthquakes). We call them SpiritFish. or Heavenly Helpers, as they collectively serve as Ambassadors for our tropical reefs and oceans, educating visitors about the beauty of both and our need to protect them. The exhibit will feature a Grey Reef Shark representing our Founder, Grandpa Petey, who will oversee the reef to protect Marissa and her Helpers - hence The Shark tag he is known for.
AgriVoltaic Fruit & Veggie Farms: A citrus & coffee farm growing oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, papaya, avocados, bananas and coffee beans under 7 – 60,000 SF bifacial solar canopies, plus coffeea 120,000 SF indoor vertical produce and berry farm, a 60,000 SF operations food processing building, 5 acres of pineapple and over 23 acres of coffee beans.
The Plan is to secure a larger site to increase coffee farming, and water production, clean power generation, more workforce housing units and below market housing lots for maui residents. An increased site will also add additional jobs across multiple verticals. The overall objective is to build food, water and energy rested by good paying community jobs. The land is certainly available, the true question is whether the political will to build it exists.
KaffeLUA maui Coffee Company: over 23 acres of the site will grow coffee beans for the estate coffee brand. Beans will be roasted on sites and sold within the Farmers Market, the onsite KaffeeLUA Cafe, Aquarium Gallery Restaurant and distributed to local Maui restaurants and resorts. This Estate coffee brand will be sold exclusively via the online ReefShark Apparel & Accessories store to benefit the CBO Foundation efforts.
The farm includes a 32,000 SF Farmers Market to sell products grown onsite and those of other Maui farmers, incorporating the KaffeLUA Mau Coffee products,
Maui AirWater, plus numerous local Maui cultural exhibits and artworks. The farm will also operate West MauiYolks, a 2,500 SF chicken coup with 3,000 SF open fenced yard for 500+ egg laying hens to produce up to 2,500 eggs per week.
GridZero EnergyGroup: Will form Maui Energy Partners LP, a proposed Hawaii Limited Partnership (Maui Partners) to fund, build and manage the project's advanced state-of-the-art renewable energy micro-grid - which will generate an estimated 140,000 kwh of power daily.
The goal is to form a private/public partnership to develop a daily 140 MW power and storage micro grid network onsite, or larger subject to land availability. The rendering above was designed to have a multi-tier energy storage system with power generated from over 980,000 SF of solar panel roof-tops, 185,500 SF of solar carports, 1,200 - 10kw Vertical Access Wind Turbines (VAWT), and 100 2.5kw Smartflower solar tracking systems spread throughout the project. This group will also manage the onsite Maui EVPlugHUB systems, all energy storage and back-up generators systems on site.
Maui AirWater: We are proposing to build a utility scale Atmospheric Water Generators (AWG) plant to harvest up to 400,000 gallons per day (GPD) of fresh water from local humidity. Although most will mainly go towards irrigation, 50,000 gallons will be used for ICE & packaged in BPA Free aluminum cans and glass branded as Maui AirWater.
Aquarium Plaza Island View Residences: A 126-unit housing project set on 13.5 acres consisting of 14 three story buildings each with elevators, and 9 fully equipped all electric 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,250 SF homes. The project will have a clubhouse with pool, spa, BBQ area, gym and solar canopy carports. There is an onsite self-storage center with rental units for tenants at additional cost.
Subject to Hawaiian laws, homes will be offered and financed directly by APVG as developer at $825,000 each – financed at 3.25% (10-year loan) to 5.25% (30-year loan) with 15% down. Buyers will receive a $750 monthly payment credit provided they reside in their units. HOA fees of $900 per unit will include unit water, power, cable TV, trash, sewer and Starlink internet service. The land owner will receive $75,000 per sale ($9.45 million total) for the 70-acre land parcel purchase agreement under a Private/Public Partnership (PPP) plan, if approved or similar agreement with a private land owner.
Tropical Reef Research & Conservation Center: A 25,000 SF dedicated reef research & conservation campus, with full aquaculture lab facilities to raise Hawaiian reef fish and sea life for onsite aquariums, and marine science training facility. They will schedule coastal and beach clean-up projects, develop and manage all ocean issue related awareness programs.
They will also develop and manage all ocean issue related awareness programs, develop and manage the future CBO Foundation Clear Blue Yacht Charters, consisting of a proposed fleet of crewed Sunreef 60 ECO, solar powered sailing catamarans to promote a new way to explore the Hawaiian Islands. They will also be used for extended research missions to remote island locations to showcase the plastic waste and debris impact on them and our reefs.
MauiCUBES, will produce 3,000 pounds of ice per day, offering block and bagged cubed ice products. Most of the AirWater will be used for tis coffee, vineyard & other farming irrigation, onsite housing units, commercial operations and landscaping. Surplus water will be sold to local water supply systems or private clients like golf courses.
CBO Resilience Warehouse: The project will have a 15,000 SF warehouse operated by the CBO Foundation to store disaster required items, including, but not limited to food, water, tents, bedding, first aid and related supplies for immediate dispatch to a disaster area within the Hawaiian Islands.
West Maui EVPlugHUB: The WMRC will feature 48 level 3 - EV fast charging stations, seen in the lower left side of the attached conceptual site rendering, with a KaffeLUA Café with a drive through coffee service, a second story ocean view deck and bathrooms for customers.
APVG will offer a reduced fixed daily charging rate of $.185 per kwh for member-locals to charge their EV, business shuttles, trucks or related vehicles, and $0.22 per kwh for non-member visitors. Current rates in West Maui during mid-day are $.28 per kWh, and peak rates are $.40 per kWh, so this will save local EV owners on their recharging costs. Rate can reach $0.57 per kwh elsewhere on the Maui.
Owners Family Estate: APVG, GridZero and CBO Foundation founder, and project owner, intends to utilize 3 acres of the project site to build a family estate, where he plans to relocate to oversee the farming operations, and related onsite businesses along with family members. It is a long-term goal of his to retire on Maui - while managing this project from a local perspective. To pay it forward by actively helping the community recover, and reinvest a share of the proceeds from these collective operations to help fund local businesses and/or initiatives when possible.
The West Maui Resilience Center is not just another mixed-use commercial project. It will serve as a working model for resilient community focused infrastructure. It will collectively create over 600 local long-term diversified jobs across multiple verticals, helping to strengthen Maui County’s capacity to withstand future disasters like the August 2023 Lahaina fires.
This project will also become a must visit destination for Maui visitors, interested in seeing a working sustainable business model in action, as well as for locals. Once built, estimated to be by early 2028, other Hawaiian Islands will likely seek similar Centers. The CBO Foundation will offer guided tours through the entire project to showcase its sustainable net-zero operations.
How This Project Will Be Funded
The AngelPreneur Venture Group (APVG) is the owner of this proposed project, with funding for this $250+ million development coming in various stages. Initially design, land acquisition cost and site development work will be paid directly by GridZero from its 20% share of ClubZERO Rewards monthly membership dues allocated to the GridZero Venture Fund. Additional funding will come from APVG, the CBO Foundation, private impact institutional and accredited investors, through donations, grants and other means.
Some elements of the project - like the proposed owners residence compound may change or be eliminated or relocated to another part of the project. The AgriVoltaic farming project will likely receive state and federal grants to help offset costs, while the Island Palms employee housing project will come from more traditional financing. The Tropical Reef Research & Conservation Center will be funded by the CBO Foundation.