dancing with the carrs
A former Maui farm boy, Stanford Carr - here with wife Kathy - is today one of Hawaii’s biggest developers. But it’s for his charitable work that he’s being honored by the March of Dimes at Saturday’s Governor’s Ball
By Katherine Nichols
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ling, coaching or attending his children’s Pop Warner and soccer games, walking their dachshund and two Great Danes, and fishing excursions on his 35-foot boat usually hit the top of the list. Sometimes the angling gets serious: He reports, on at least one occasion, tipping the scales with a 500-pound marlin.
After graduating from Maui High School and the University of Hawaii, he started Stanford Carr Development in 1990. Since then, his company has designed and constructed 3,500 homes on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island in master-planned communities, which include the 43-acre Hawaii Kai Peninsula and the Fairways at Mauna Lani.
Along the way, Carr has retained the down-to-earth character fostered during a childhood spent growing Chinese cabbage and bell peppers in the farmlands of Kula. He says the lessons he learned in the fields correlate with what he’s assimilated in 20 years of business in a volatile economy.
“Farming was a means for me to make money as a child, and it taught me my work ethic,” he says. “What you put into it is what you get out of it, but not necessarily all the time because of external forces you can’t control, like weather, diseases, oversupply and strikes. But regardless of those factors, you need to be passionate and put your time and energy into it. Because there’s a sense of accomplishment when you nurture and grow something, whether it’s a vegetable or a community.”
Carr’s projects range from homeless shelters to entry-level homes to rentals for low- or fixed-income seniors, to luxury homes and resorts. In the first quarter of next year, the company is slated to begin a 19-story high rise in Kakaako with 204 rental apartments geared for workers with moderate salaries.
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The self-described “frustrated architect” who always strives to improve his product and create housing opportunities for a variety of lifestyles and income levels - and integrate those developments with the existing environment - says he has never finished a project without reprimanding himself for missing an opportunity.
“I’m my biggest critic,” he says. “But you learn as much from your mistakes and failures and challenges as you do from your successes. It teaches you a sense of tenacity and perseverance. You become stronger, better, and hopefully wiser.”
He will test parameters again with the recently purchased Makena Beach & Golf Resort on Maui. In addition to renovating the 310-room hotel, Stanford Carr Development is creating a master-plan resort that encompasses work-force housing.
“I know it’s going to be controversial,” he admits, “but we’ll engage the community. People use the word ‘sustainable,’ and what’s more sustainable than having the people who work at the resort live in the resort?”
This commitment to sustainability also means preserving Makena’s rustic, untamed character by building structures that prevent anyone from knowing “there’s a condo project behind those kiawe trees.”
Carr has begun pondering the age-old cliché that feels fresh when it finally means something to the individual contemplating it: “Where did the time go?”
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His goals include managing his schedule more effectively so he sees as much of his family as possible, and mentoring younger associates. But sometimes this means allowing them to make their own mistakes.
“I had to learn the hard way,” he recalls.
Even so, he harbors no regrets. The process helped him develop the ability to foster collaboration - what he considers his greatest asset. But there may be another strength of which he is less aware, and that is the example of civic responsibility he sets for those around him.
“My family and I are very fortunate,” says Carr. “We want to share, and we want to give back to society, because it’s really society that’s contributed to where we are in our success.”
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