My bad. No idea how I could have missed that! So he wants a semi-hollow.
At that price range it's pretty tough to find a great semi-hollow.
Perhaps you can wait for a sale at SL (if there is one) for either a Epiphone Dot or Casino (depends on your ideal body size and pickup type you want). The Riviera has in interesting sound with the mini-humbuckers. Ibanez Artcore models are surprisingly decent at their low price tag. Also at SL.
Secondhand Artcore/Dot.
Although you can try Samick's semi-hollow series, great stuff. I have a lower end one, uses Grover tuners and good hardware, decet sounding pups. Get a higher end one and it should trump the Dot/Artcore imo.
Hmmm i have seen many guitar manufacturers advertise electro-acoustics as semi-acoustics. I don't know about semihollows, i've not ventured there yet, but for electro-acoustics, i think Maestro, Takamine and even Swing are within your budget and worth a try. Yamaha too, if you get them from Luther. Taylor Big Baby might be your thing too.