Maui council OKs purchase of Maui News complex to expand office space

The Maui County Council on Friday approved a plan to buy the 6.3-acre Maui News building complex for $9.8 million and convert it into county office space.

The plan by Mayor Micheal Victorino’s administration aims to cut down on the county’s $100,000 monthly bill for renting office space.

The county’s primary home is Kalana O Maui, a nine-story tower built in 1972 on High Street in Wailuku. The county has long grown out of the space, so it leases offices, for example, in the nearby One Main Plaza building, where it has spent $21 million over the past 14 years.

Maui County would issue bonds to purchase the three-building Maui News complex at 100 Mahalani St., which is located between Wailuku and Kahului, across the street from the Maui Police Department and near Maui Memorial Medical Center.

Under the county’s purchase plan, the departments of Environmental Management, Housing and Human Concerns, and Planning would move into the building, allowing the county to eliminate rental costs for those divisions.

County managing director Sandy Baz said that even with $6 million in design and renovation costs, the county would save $30 million over a 20-year period.

Still, a few council members were unimpressed.

Councilwoman Kelly Takaya King said she felt rushed to approve the purchase. She said the lease market is favorable right now, and it doesn’t seem like this is the best deal. She suggested the county look at other buildings in Wailuku.

King also said she wouldn’t be surprised unforeseen expenses drove up the ultimate price. She compared the deal to the Honolulu rail project, whose price tag has ballooned substantially.

“I’ve seen this movie before,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable this a good purchase for the people of Maui County.”

Councilwoman Yuki Lei Sugimura said the need for space may not be so urgent anymore because the coronavirus pandemic has shown that working remotely in many cases can work just as well as being at the office.

“It’s a situation where we have learned that we don’t have to be in this building,” she said.

But Councilwoman Keani Rawlins-Fernandez said the pandemic will end and things will normalize.

“We’re not just looking now. We’re looking ahead to the future,” she said.

As part of the proposal, the administration agreed to set aside for the council and its staff a whole floor of the Kalana O Maui building plus 30 parking spaces.

In the end, the purchase was approved 6-3, with King, Sugimura and Michael Molina in the minority.

Under a sales agreement, the Maui News would lease the rear building from the county, and the newspaper’s employees and printing press would be moved into that smaller space. After two years of free rent, the newspaper would pay $10,000 per month to the county as long as it remains in that location.

According to a recent story in the Maui News, the newspaper is already in the process of relocating its employees to the rear building, a mix of office and warehouse space.

“The newspaper plans to be an important part of the Maui community for years to come and looks to find new ways to operate and generate new revenue,” the company told its readers.

The 121-year-old Maui News is owned by Wheeling, W.Va.-based Ogden Newspapers, which purchased the paper in 2000. Ogden runs more than 40 small daily newspapers across the country, plus dozens of weekly newspapers, shoppers and magazines.