Question: I was under the impression that in the rebuilding of the John Dominis restaurant and redevelopment slated for Kakaako Waterfront Park and Kewalo Basin, there was to be a 30-foot pedestrian buffer between the buildings and water, ensuring the ability to walk unimpeded from Magic Island to Kakaako Waterfront Park. The new building replacing John Dominis seems to be designed on the old footprint, allowing it to completely block the public from the waterfront. When were these changes made, who allowed them and was the public ever notified?
Answer: Plans to construct a public promenade from Magic Island to Kakaako Waterfront Park are long term at best, and Ocean Investments, which took over the lease to the Ahui Street property where the John Dominis restaurant sat for 31 years, is not required to provide public accessway.
It is a condition of the permit issued by the Hawaii Community Development Authority that there be "open space" between the new structure and the top of the "riprap" wall — the sea wall — said Anthony Ching, HCDA’s executive director.
Although there doesn’t appear to be that "open space" as construction continues, Ching said he and his staff have verified there is 16 to 20 feet of space between the wall and the building, because that "is a permit condition that needs to be met."
However, "open space" does not mean Ocean Investments — which is building a restaurant, office space and meeting rooms that can be utilized as wedding chapels — cannot build on that space.
Ching explained that the John Dominis restaurant previously paid rent not only for the Ahui Street parcel, but also for the airspace where the building was cantilevered over the water.
Ocean Investments is not using any airspace, but is paying rent for the entire parcel, including the area designated for "open space." So it can put up a "temporary facility" (e.g., a tent or wooden deck) that is easily removable, Ching said. "They’ve agreed not to" put up something "permanent," such as a concrete slab.
The company is paying "in excess of a quarter-million dollars a year" in lease rent, with about 31 years left on the lease, Ching said.
Public Promenade
A public promenade is on the state’s wish list but is not anywhere near being planned.
The current promenade around Kakaako Waterfront Park ends in front of the Pacific Biosciences Research Center’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory.
Between the lab and the Ocean Investments property is a drop in elevation to where the lab has a pump house, Ching said. Because of that geographic reality, it would be difficult and costly to continue the promenade along the waterfront, he said.
A less costly option would be to build a promenade by following the public easement that wraps around the Kewalo Marine Lab to Ahui Street, then back along the oceanfront.
At this point, considering the state’s priorities, especially for social programs, a promenade is not a high priority.
"I’m not saying we never intend to do it — it’s a good thing to plan for and do," Ching said. For now, "I think we have the best of both worlds in that we still collect rent while we have the provision that that (Ocean Investments) building will not (be an impediment) should we desire to do a public promenade."
Mahalo
To the person who turned my car and house keys in to the security office at the Dole Cannery in late May. I was parked in the Costco Iwilei lot and left the keys in the driver’s side door. After checking at Costco and the movie theater, I asked for help from a Dole Cannery security guard, who took me to the office where some kind soul had turned them in. — Emmy Lou Armstrong
———
Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
