A development firm affiliated with contractor Goodfellow Bros. is advancing plans to transform an 86-acre agricultural property on Maui into a heavy industrial park.
The company, CMBY 2011 Investment LLC, recently petitioned the state Land Use Commission to reclassify the site from agricultural to urban use for the project dubbed Pu‘unene Heavy Industrial Subdivision.
CMBY, which is affiliated with Washington state-based Goodfellow and its development sister company, Pacific Rim Land Inc., said in the petition that the estimated $20 million project would be the first heavy industrial park developed on Maui in more than a decade and will address an existing tight supply of space for industrial companies.
"The availability of heavy industrial land in Central Maui is so limited that rising land values and industrial rents are making it infeasible for heavy industrial users to build or expand their operations," the company said in the petition.
CMBY intends to subdivide the site into about 28 lots ranging from a half-acre to 20 acres, and sell the lots to industrial businesses. Full build-out could take 10 years, the company estimated.
Allowable uses in such a park would include concrete and cement production, quarry operations, petroleum storage, lumberyards, chemical manufacturing, slaughterhouses and automobile wrecking facilities.
CMBY said in the petition that a landfill is not an intended use despite past discussions with Maui County.
Maui County’s Planning Department supports the subdivision plan along with the state Office of Planning, in part because the site is within Maui County’s urban growth boundary.
Though the site borders some sugar cane fields, it is also near a quarry, a cement plant, Maui Raceway Park and a National Guard armory.
The land, which is vacant, was once planted in sugar cane but has very low-quality soil, the petition says. Prior to sugar cane cultivation, the site was part of a naval air station during World War II.
CMBY bought the property from Alexander & Baldwin Inc., which operates Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. on adjacent land, in 2011 for $3.5 million, according to property records.
The developer produced a final environmental assessment for the project in November. The company has submitted applications with Maui County to amend the Kihei-Makena Community Plan and for a zoning change to allow the project.
The Land Use Commission has scheduled a public hearing on the state land-use change for Sept. 5 at 9:30 a.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Kahului.
CMBY estimated that it could take until 2015 or 2016 to obtain all necessary approvals that would allow construction on the subdivision to start.
