Longtime food businessman, boater seek to enliven Waikiki gateway at Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor

A longtime Oahu food operator and an Ala Wai boater and entrepreneur are partnering to bring a food truck and entertainment court to the gateway of the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, where a derelict staging area currently sits.

Gilbert Sakaguchi, owner of Blue Water Shrimp International LLC, is partnering on the concept called Pau Hana Waikiki with Mark Evenson, a Waikiki resident who owns a 50-foot powerboat dubbed Da Office, which is in a slip that overlooks their proposed harbor location.

The partners plan to offer a mixed menu, including Hawaiian, Japanese, seafood and other local-style favorites, as well as conversation-­friendly Hawaiian music. Plans call for 32 umbrella-­covered tables with four seats, an entertainment area and landscaping. They will provide 24/7 security and maintain the nearby public restrooms.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources already approved a recommendation from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation to issue Blue Water Shrimp a revocable permit, good for 30 days at a time, to temporarily redevelop approximately 9,000 square feet of a roughly 23,000-square-foot waterfront parcel.

BLNR is requiring the partners to obtain all necessary county permits as a condition of its authorization. Pau Hana Waikiki’s cultural consultant, Peter Apo, presented the concept Tuesday to the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, receiving enthusiastic support. Apo said he will be conducting more community outreach in advance of permitting.

Apo said the project is critical because of its position as the gateway to Waikiki, near culturally significant Kalia Road, where an important fishpond once stood.

DOBOR Administrator Ed Underwood sent a letter to the city Department of Planning and Permitting in July supporting the project. Underwood said Act 197 passed in 2011 allowed redevelopment of certain assets to generate revenues within the harbor. Additionally, Underwood said earlier environmental assessment findings of no significant impacts recommended a “small, informal restaurant” and “landscaping” in the former haul-out area.

“The proposed action is located at the gateway to Waikiki. The area is currently vacant, undeveloped, lacks ground cover and landscaping,” Underwood wrote. “The public restroom is often vandalized and shut down for long periods of time. There are accounts of illicit activities in this area and at times people have taken up residence under the bridge.

“As the gateway to Waikiki, DLNR-DOBOR believes that the security, landscaping, outdoor dining area, restroom maintenance, and soft Hawaiian music would be an improvement to the vacant dirt lot and other safety challenges,” he said. “Pending a new RFP (request for proposals), the applicant’s proposal would be a welcome improvement to the existing appearance and safety of the area and would be a benefit to the public.”

Sakaguchi, who is close to 80 years old, has been a well-known name in the food industry for decades. More than 50 years ago he opened his first Magoo’s Pizza location on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. That location closed years ago, but he currently operates others.

He also operates Blue Water Shrimp &Seafood Market at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort and another as a food truck.

His most recent endeavor is $5 Bentos, which has six food truck locations across Oahu, offers catering and has contracts to feed employees at various hotels.

He said he was attracted to the Ala Wai Harbor site because “anything on the water tends to be successful” and it has the right mix of resident and tourist traffic. Sakaguchi said he also is excited about the possibility of bringing a new waterfront food and entertainment location to Waikiki.

“When I first came to Waikiki in the 1960s, every hotel had Hawaiian music. They don’t have it anymore,” he said.

Evenson said he had been planning a similar temporary harbor concept but joined forces with Sakaguchi after learning the longtime restaurateur and food truck operator had submitted an earlier proposal.

“He has the resources for food, but I appreciated the concept of a friendly community space. My boat is there. I have a vested interest in the public benefits,” Evenson said. “I think it’s a wonderful piece of real estate to go and enjoy a lunch in the afternoon or an evening with friends watching the sailboats go by.”

Evenson, who has a 100-ton captain’s license, is familiar with boating communities and harbors. He has lived in Hawaii on and off for 10 years, but moved back full time in January. Prior to that, he said he worked on a large motor yacht for a private family for two years. He said he and two other business partners plan to launch a sunset sailing commercial venture on a 40-foot trimaran called Hokulani by year’s end.

DLNR has said that it expects to put out a request for proposals to redevelop the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor before year’s end. The state’s latest vision for redevelopment there calls for a partner willing to participate in an upgrade, estimated to cost $251 million to $356 million, that focuses on delivering essential harbor functions, improving community amenities and preparing for climate change.

DOBOR hired the University of Hawaii Community Design Center and UH’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning for $66,000 in November 2020 to provide conceptual planning and design services to shape the state’s next attempt to procure a partner to redevelop the aging facility.

The UH team developed the latest vision report using information from public and stakeholder engagement meetings and focus groups between 2017 and 2021.

The team identified two preferred redevelopment options, which call for a maritime welcome center, market plaza, education and community center, watercraft park and surf community center. The pricier option, which would cost over $100 million more, adds a parking garage to the watercraft park and a canoe storage and landing area to the surf community center, as well as greater boardwalk improvements, among other amenities.

The vision report’s recommendations for the harbor also include green spaces, lawns and gardens for social gatherings and community events; conference space and outdoor classrooms for local community/school groups; a flexible mixed-use plaza space for cafes, event kiosks and retail offerings; commercial and public boat and watercraft access; parking and storage facilities; a living shoreline marsh to provide native habitat for shorebirds, fish and crustaceans; and a multimodal promenade and elevated boardwalk to serve as a primary connector to the harbor for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The vision report sets out a construction timeline that could start June 1, 2024, and end by June 1, 2028. However, in reality it could be much longer since the state first has to put out a request for proposals and find a partner, and then the partner would need to go through permitting and construction.

The redevelopment has been a long time coming. It was years ago when the state broadened the harbor’s redevelopment options through Act 197 and HRS 171-6(19), paving the way for a public-private partnership.

Ala Wai harbor users lost their fuel dock and boat repair yard when an earlier state partner, Honey Bee USA, demolished them to make way for a wedding chapel and entertainment complex. The state’s partnership with Honey Bee came to an early end when the company went bankrupt in 2016.

Apo said the Pau Hana Waikiki team recognizes that the harbor request for proposals could proceed before they complete their own permitting. However, he said the team expects to have enough time to justify the risk of operating under a revocable permit. Perhaps there could be an even larger role for them to play in the future, he said.

“I’m not saying that what we are proposing is the end solution. But I think it’s a ramp-up in the right direction,” Apo said. “The place, the business and the community benefits have to be equally distributed to all three — that’s how we measure success.”