This is my second time dealing with this company and the improvement has been so drastic that I just had to write a review.
Okada Trucking is supposedly a construction company, but they own a LOT of property on Oahu and most of it seems to be apartment and commercial buildings. I first moved into one of their units back in 2009 when I first relocated to Hawaii, and I did so purely because of the convenient location of their Waikiki property. Right next to the zoo, five minutes to the beach, absolutely amazing!
But then, over the next month, I started to realize there were more than just a few drawbacks.
First, the local girl who was managing the building was not just a B*TCH, but absolutely useless and unreliable. In my line of work we demand efficiency, punctuality and respect, and this girl knew nothing of that. Fortunately for me, I had very few issues with the unit and therefore never really needed to contact her. But that was just one negative.
Two, this company must have been managed by the stupidest leadership in corporate history. Perhaps this is was some of mysterious, ingenious business model, but they would send in workers to gut/demolish units and areas of the building...AND THEN LEAVE IT LIKE THAT FOR YEARS. Literally, for YEARS. I work in asset management and I honestly do not know how this company didn't go bankrupt with this sort of obscene, insanely stupid business protocol. Toward the end of my stay at the building, it literally looked like a bombed out war zone (and I have seen my share of them), with the lobby destroyed, literally half of the units in the building empty (seriously) and torn apart and, because of all that, the property became a huge attraction for squatters, homeless and drug addicts. Which brings up the next point:
Three, management allowed the building to become East Waikiki's premier homeless hangout. Each night, the stairways were bustling with a lively assortment of crackheads methheads and other various addicts, smoking and shooting up and urinating and defecating (and occasionally copulating) all over the place, and to make things even better, the company's leadership not only fired the security guard but also unplugged the security cameras so after the transients stole your bike or broke into your car, the police wouldn't even know who to look for.
By six months I'd had enough, but before I could move out I received transfer orders and went overseas again.
Fast forward three years, and in 2013 I found myself back in Honolulu and looking for a place in Waikiki. A colleague of mine recommended I move into his building, and when he told me his address I almost $hit myself. He lived in the Okada building! I told him I'd rather move back to my tent in Kandahar Province. But he insisted it was a great place, so I took a chance and called Okada, let them know I was a former tenant and asked to view a unit.
A week later I signed a new rental contract and shortly thereafter moved back into the building, although to a higher floor with an even better view. This is an entirely different building and company.
From what my neighbors told me, Okada had some sort of house-cleaning and fired all of the management. I heard they even fired the company's president. If he was the guy who was giving orders back in 2009, I'd ask why they waited so long. Only in the private sector. If this were a government office, an administrator like that would be publicly dismissed and shamed.
The new guy in charge of the properties is the main reason I moved in. A thousand times more professional than that girl from before. Efficient, honest, explained to me the new policies and initiatives they were working on and some of the challenges still remaining from the past management and leadership (or lack thereof). Goes out of his way to accommodate folks in the service, which people like me appreciate.
There are no drug addicts roaming the halls at night. The lobby has been rebuilt and no longer resembles a post-invasion Iraqi bomb shelter. If I have questions for management, I get straight answers and if I need something done, it gets done. Fast. If there is a downside, it's that the new management has the building almost 100% occupied and that means longer elevator rides and less parking, but that also means half the homeless population of Waikiki isn't trying to break in now.
Only a few months into my second stay here and there are still some areas of the building that need to be worked on, but at least now it looks like someone is actually doing something. It's now safe, comfortable and still one of the best views and locations in Waikiki.
I'm very happy. read more