Members of the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trust-ees are again exploring the idea of investing in television station KGMB.

This time, however, members are looking at a partnership with Heftel Communications and businessman Cec Heftel, who formerly owned KGMB.

OHA trustee Dante Carpenter, who chairs the Committee on Asset and Resource Management, said his panel will discuss the possibility with Heftel representatives during a Tuesday meeting.

Carpenter said Heftel approached OHA trustees about a joint project in which OHA would purchase the 40,166 square feet of land under the station while Heftel's company would buy KGMB, which is the local affiliate for the CBS network.

"My understanding is Heftel and a group of folks are getting back into the TV business and are looking to form partnerships and parlaying those partnerships into upgrading the station from its present analog (technology) to digital," Carpenter said.

In early July, the full OHA board rejected a proposal that would have had OHA administrative staff begin studying legal issues involved in OHA buying the station on its own.

Several board members tried to move the proposal through again at a Monday meeting but failed to muster enough votes.

The Heftel partnership would be "sort of a variation on the theme we talked about earlier except that we would be at arm's length so that there would be no hint of a conflict of interest in terms of OHA owning a TV station," Carpenter said.

"We would not really own that. We would probably own the real estate under it and maybe look at having a partnership interest, that kind of thing."

Carpenter said owning the site would give OHA the option of developing the land, which has an assessed value of about $6 million. A private appraisal valued the property at about $10 million.

The parcel is across Kapi'olani Boulevard, from the expansion of Ala Moana Center.

Efforts to reach Heftel for comment were unsuccessful.

Rick Blangiardi, KGMB general manager, said he had heard from a third party this week that Heftel was interested but that he himself has not spoken to either Heftel or OHA officials about the proposal.

Blangiardi said he had not heard from the Blackstone Group, which is handling the sale of the station for owner Emmis Communications Corp.

Heftel sold the station in 1977 shortly after being elected to Congress.

OHA Trustee John Waihe'e IV opposed the previous initiative and said that he hasn't seen anything in the latest proposal that would make him change his mind.

Waihe'e said he wants to see a business plan and other details before he can be convinced to support moving forward.

"It's a good location for something. The question is exactly what are we going to do with it besides lease it out to these guys?"

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.