Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 3, 1 March 2016 — Need a gotf cart? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Need a gotf cart?

Mālama Loan helps Nohokai grow its fleet

ByTreenaShapiro As a production coordinator for "Monday Night Football," Curtis Colin was responsible for renting utility vehicles and generators all over the country. Onee or twice a year, he'd return home to Hawai'i, working at the Pro Bowl or golf tournaments during the off-season. The equipment he needed for those events could be hard to find. "For production eompanies coming here, there was just very limited resources and vehicles for them to use," he said. Around 2004, Colin got tired of

the constant travel and returned home permanently. Production managers who knew he'd moved back got in touch when they were heading to Hawai'i for work, hoping he could point them toward the gear they needed. He started buying little things they were looking for so he could rent them out. After about a year, the Golf Channel contacted him. "They needed 30 carts themselves for a golf tournament. So we provided," he said. "I went out and bought 30 golf carts and rented them for seven events." That launched his company, Nohokai Production Services, whieh rents, sells and services electric golf carts, utility vehicles and generators. Since its start in 2005, Nohokai has grown to include 120 to 130 golf carts, enough to be able to rent out three 30-cart fleets at a time.

The company also has 30 off-road vehicles and 30 generators. Production crews from all the major networks, productions such as "Hawai'i Five-0," and "Jurassic World," as well as festival organizers have turned to Nohokai for their needs. "We have the largest fleet, so nobody ean touch us as far as doing what we do," Colin said. For the first eouple years, Colin kept his golf carts at Turtle Bay, where he'd originally purchased them. For the past seven or eight years, Nohokai has been headquartered at the Waikele Gulch Bunkers in underground structures that easily convert into garages. AMālama Loan fromthe Office of Hawaiian Affairs helped Colin grow his company. "We used the money to buy more golf carts to expand the fleet to 60," whieh happened to be the new Golf Channel requirement, Colin explained. "They were expanding and they needed more cameras and they needed more carts to get the eam-

eras around, so it was a good fit." Now Nohokai ean offer its services even when there is very high demand, Colin says. For example, when one fleet needs to be shipped to Maui for a golf tournament at Kapalua, carts are still available for events on O'ahu. Colin advises other Native Hawaiian entrepreneurs to consider Mālama Loans. "It's very helpful, especially with that interest rate, and it's fixed, too," he said. He recommends that people get their business plans together in advance. Onee that's taken care of, the applieahon process is quite easy, he said. So easy, in fact, that he said, "I'm going to ask them for more money, to expand by another 60 utility vehicles." The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has helped more than 2,000 Native Hawaiian families with low interest loans to build businesses, repair homes and take care of educational expenses. For more information about OHA's Mālama Loan Program, visit www.oha.org/malamaloan. ■

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Curtis Colin's Nohokai Productions rents equipment to production crews. - Photo: Courtesy