The former Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant at Kewalo Basin was demolished Thursday morning as part of a redevelopment plan by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

OHA intends to develop the prime waterfront site in the coming years and wants to remove the old restaurant building now in part because it’s become something of an eyesore and is too costly to rehabilitate for interim use.

OHA has owned the site since 2012 and is working to create a long-range redevelopment plan for the site along with eight other parcels in Kakaako makai of Ala Moana Boulevard that it accepted from the state as payment for disputed past ceded-land revenue valued at $200 million.

Interim uses of the restaurant building have been explored before but were derailed by costly rehab needs stemming from years of deferred maintenance.

Fisherman’s Wharf opened in 1952.