Chris Oxendine

What makes this firm different

Most contractors sell craftsmanship and references. Masterpiece can de-risk a project across dimensions that have nothing to do with swinging a hammer — financing, sourcing, entitlement, safety compliance, and design. The through-line: Chris Oxendine has sat on every side of the table — owner, developer, builder, importer, sponsor.

A builder who is also a developer

Most firms in West Hawaii are one or the other. A general contractor builds to plans someone else entitled. A developer entitles land and hires the building out. Masterpiece does both — and has taken its own projects through the full cycle: acquisition, entitlement, construction, and sale. There is no handoff between the party who understands the entitlement and the party who understands the build, which is where schedule and budget most often leak. Current and recent development work includes master-planned and multifamily projects across Hawaii County and Maui County, including an 81-unit resort-style residential community and a 240-unit affordable housing community in Kihei, and residential subdivision programs structured under Maui County's workforce housing provisions and Hawaii's 201H affordable pathway.

Balance sheet capacity and sponsor participation

Lenders on construction projects require a sponsor with demonstrated construction experience and the financial strength to stand behind the project. Many owners — particularly first-time builders and buyers of resort lots — have the assets to build but cannot satisfy a lender's sponsor requirements on their own. On qualifying projects, Masterpiece can participate as a joint venture partner and construction sponsor, bringing completed-project history, bonding capacity and balance-sheet strength to the borrower's application.

Direct to factory, not through a middleman

Most contractors buy every material through local suppliers and distributors. Masterpiece sources directly from overseas manufacturers, imports containers year-round, and manages the logistics, customs and duty exposure in-house. Chris Oxendine has visited supplier factories in China on multiple occasions. Three things follow: lower cost from removing a layer of distribution margin, real quality control from specifying from a factory he has walked rather than a catalogue — which matters in a salt air and volcanic rain environment — and managed tariff and duty exposure as country of origin shifts sourcing decisions. Oxendine was one of six Hawaii construction leaders interviewed by Pacific Business News on the impact of tariffs on the industry (May 2025), where he described the firm's year-round importing from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Safety and reporting to federal standards

Masterpiece has delivered projects under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requirements, including compliance with EM 385-1-1, the Corps' safety and health requirements manual — among the most demanding safety and reporting regimes in American construction. That discipline carries into private work: documented safety programs, formal reporting, and schedules managed to a critical path rather than a wall calendar.

Design-build — catching the expensive mistakes while they are still cheap

Masterpiece is a design-build firm, and Chris Oxendine has designed as well as built, which means design problems get caught in design. On a Kohala Coast resort project with 12 to 18 months from concept to design approval, a submittal that comes back over something that should have been caught at the drawing board doesn't cost a revision — it costs a review cycle, measured in months.

Experience beyond Hawaii

Masterpiece has built on the mainland as well, including Texas. Working in more than one market is a corrective — it is how you learn which practices are genuinely best and which are simply how a particular island has always done it.

Underwriting depth

Beyond construction, the firm carries out project-level financial analysis: feasibility studies, development proformas, absorption and comparable sales analysis, and affordable housing program modelling under county and state frameworks. That work extends to utility-scale infrastructure, including predevelopment feasibility work on a Maui waste-to-energy facility.