Youth program wins a home base

An open-air building the state erected along Honolulu’s waterfront for commercial fishing boat operators to dry their nets is set to become a long-term base for a private nonprofit that helps troubled kids.

A state board last week gave tentative approval for the organization Kupu to obtain a lease for what is known as the “net shed” at Kewalo Harbor so the nonprofit can remodel the pavilionlike facility for $6 million that includes $2 million from Hawaii taxpayers.

Board members of the Hawaii Community Development Authority agreed to negotiate a 15-year lease that could be extended to 35 years for the building Kupu will use for its programs and also make available to community groups, individuals and private organizations for little or no cost.

The deal realizes an ambitious goal for the nonprofit that has used the drab building on month-to-month terms since 2010.

Though one HCDA board member preferred that the net shed be torn down to enlarge Kewalo Basin Park, others agreed that the building is a historical connection to Hawaii’s commercial fishing fleet and that Kupu has made the area more inviting by bringing daily activity to a dead end of the park area once overrun by drug addicts and the homeless.

“When we first got into the net shed, it was called the crack shack,” John Leong, Kupu’s CEO, told HCDA board members last week. “It was a place that was pretty scary.”

HCDA, which controls development in Kakaako, built the net shed in 1989-90 as part of Kewalo Basin Park on the makai edge of Kewalo Harbor. The 8,400-square-foot building includes bathrooms and is a pavilionlike structure with one concrete wall and chain-link fencing serving as walls on three sides.

Fishermen, however, didn’t use the structure for long, as the commercial fishing fleet at the harbor shrank and the use of nylon nets grew.

Public charter school Halau Ku Mana used the building from 2006 to 2010 for coastal education programs. After the school left, Kupu moved in on month-to-month terms and sought a 35-year lease at $1 per year.

HCDA’s executive director was allowed in 2012 to provide a letter of intent for a lease, but an environmental assessment had to be done before a lease could be given. The assessment was completed in 2015, and Kupu renewed its lease request.

Kupu is offering to provide HCDA with 65 hours of monthly labor to help care for the surrounding area and share 10 percent of any revenue generated from the net shed that Leong estimated could total $584 a month for the agency. He said Kupu has raised $3.2 million of its $6 million improvement budget, including two grants totaling $2 million awarded by the state in 2015 and 2016.

There was some question as to whether Kupu’s use is allowed on the site because the net shed is mostly on park-zoned land. Under HCDA zoning rules, park land uses are limited to amphitheaters, exploratoriums, performing arts centers, art galleries, museums, aquariums, marine research facilities, gardens, greenhouses and parking. The agency also may allow other uses that “further the purpose and intent” of its plans and rules.

Last week, the agency’s board decided that Kupu, which is focused on education and job training programs, qualifies. However, the board said Kupu couldn’t add a mezzanine level to the building because it would increase floor area beyond what is allowed.

The unanimous decision followed testimony from about 20 Kupu supporters including staff, program beneficiaries, park users and harbor users. No one testified against Kupu’s plan.

Todd Mayeshiro told the board that Kupu helped his daughter go from failing high school classes to graduating a year early. “I can’t even express how much they improved her life,” he said.

Mayeshiro said his daughter, who also spoke to HCDA’s board, found Kupu and that he didn’t initially know anything about the organization.

Kupu was established in 2007 and seeks to provide life skills and job training centered around environmental conservation work to kids and young adults who are 16 to 24 years old and are neither in school nor employed.

The organization has served 3,000 youth — including many dealing with poverty, homelessness, court involvement and parental troubles — often in partnership with public schools, other nonprofits, companies and government agencies such as the National Park Service and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Rich Wacker, the CEO of American Savings Bank who heads Kupu’s net shed fundraising campaign, told HCDA’s board that he has high regard for Kupu based on his experience on different nonprofit boards.

“Kupu’s special,” he said. “It touches people’s souls.”

The nonprofit intends to remodel the net shed by adding exterior walls, doors, windows, skylights and photovoltaic roof panels. Inside, rooms would be created for classrooms, offices, a commercial kitchen and dining area. Also, a garden and imu oven pit would be created outside, and the bathrooms would be improved and include showers.

As it is now, Kupu has a makeshift commercial kitchen in the net shed along with areas for teaching and space for recreation that includes gym machines, a basketball hoop and pool table on the polished concrete floor.

One HCDA board member, Beau Bassett, said he favored tearing the net shed down so the park can be expanded. “It’s great that you want to invest in this building,” he said. “But if we’re going to be investing in a building that really shouldn’t be there, I have a concern about that.”

Yet some regular park users urged HCDA to keep the building and Kupu.

Ron Iwami, president of Friends of Kewalos, a group largely composed of surfers who frequent the surf break off the park, said Kupu created a welcome presence and deterred drug dealing and homeless camping at the end of the park. “They completely turned that around,” he said. “We have a good synergy there.”

One other concern raised during the meeting was whether Kupu would have exclusive use of the property. Leong said Kupu has let others use the building and would continue that.

“We want this space to be available for the public … something that can be a resource for everyone,” Calvert Chipchase, an attorney representing the nonprofit, told HCDA’s board. “This is not a private use with public window dressing.”

Stacy Akana, a tour boat operator at Kewalo Harbor, said Kupu helped him hold a funeral service in the net shed for his father. “I was so impressed,” he said, noting that kids in Kupu’s program helped set up.

Rick White, a longtime Kewalo charter boat captain, had the same experience holding a service for a fellow boat captain. “The event was magical,” he said, endorsing Kupu’s plan. “There is no better use of the property.”