Kewalo Basin small boat harbor has become a magnet for dining and retail development plans, attracting two bids in recent months for an Italian seafood restaurant and a wedding hall. Now a third proposal, which includes a food hall concept, has been floated.
A Japanese firm, Shindai Co. Ltd., is seeking to establish a retail and dining complex on the Diamond Head side of the harbor and integrate the facility with another Japanese company’s vision to establish a wedding hall with a restaurant, and bar, along with a parking garage.
The board of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency that owns the harbor, decided Wednesday to negotiate a potential lease and development plan with Shindai through its local affiliate, Hinamari Hawaii Inc.
Shindai is proposing to co-develop the site with the prospective wedding/restaurant developer, Goodluck Corp. and its partner Take and Give Needs Co., under a 25-year land lease with HCDA.
HCDAagreed to negotiate lease and development terms with Good Luck in August.
Shindai proposes a roughly 25,000-square-foot complex similar to the retail food hall Chelsea Market in Manhattan or Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Good Luck is proposing a roughly 25,000-square-foot wedding hall.
A third plan, a 200-seat Italian seafood restaurant by Japanese-based Bellavita Inc., was initially dismissed by the agency last month because one board member had concerns about parking constraints. But on Wednesday that board member, state Department of Transportation Harbors Division Deputy Director Randy Grune, reconsidered his view and proposed a new vote. The board voted 6-0 to consider a lease with Bellavita.
The three decisions do not mean the plans are approved. If agency staff negotiate lease terms, approval of leases would be subject to a board vote following more detailed presentations by the companies, two public hearings, an environmental review and community consultations.
Commercial fishermen and tour operators based at Kewalo Basin have raised concerns about how their businesses will be affected, especially regarding parking, loading zones and traffic flow.
"We’re totally against this project," Mike De Rego, a charter fishing boat operator, told the HCDA board.
Anthony Ching, HCDA executive director, said the agency is looking at ways to address concerns and intends to find solutions through discussions with the developers.
There are about 100 parking stalls around the harbor, which can get congested, especially when surfers are attracted by big swells. Ching said his goal would be to have 300 to 385 stalls in the proposed garage. About 70 existing stalls would be lost if the Shindai/Good Luck plan is developed.
Ching also said that a bathroom and dumpster on the site eyed by Shindai and Good Luck would be moved or incorporated into the development plan.
The City and County of Honolulu had considered establishing a lifeguard operations base in the vicinity, but agreed that a better site would be at the existing harbor master’s office near the harbor mouth, according to HCDA.
Bellavita is proposing to renovate an existing empty 3,000-square-foot building previously used by a variety of tenants, including dive shops, a parasail business, a fishing supplies store and a police substation.
Some harbor business owners say harbor-related facilities — not restaurants and a wedding venue — should be developed around the basin. Ching, however, said food and retail establishments would bring new life to the harbor and potentially generate more business for charter boats.
Ching noted that a restaurant used to be on the site eyed by Shindai and Good Luck which also was home to a McWayne Marine Supply store demolished in 1994.
"It’s not like this was all green grass before, and we’re taking it away," he said."We’re looking to restore and revitalize what was once there, which was activity."