Photo by JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Plan for senior center on pump station site OK’d
By Andrew Gomes
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 2014-03-06
March 06–A 114-year-old building in Kakaako that has stood abandoned for the past 50 years, despite being an architectural gem, may finally be put to use after numerous failed efforts and ideas in recent decades.
A proposal to rehabilitate and reuse the historic Ala Moana Pump Station, which was Honolulu’s first sewage disposal facility, was endorsed Wednesday by a state agency that owns the property.
The board of the Hawaii Community Development Authority voted to accept $1 million through a nonprofit organization and another state agency to restore the building for use as a resource center for seniors.
Pacific Gateway Center, a nonprofit serving immigrants, refugees and low-income residents, proposed using the building to provide services to seniors.
The organization received a $1 million grant provided by the Legislature through the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to establish a community resource center, and approached HCDArecently after prospects for another site fell through.
Under the proposal, the nonprofit would channel its grant to HCDAto bid out the renovation work, and then negotiate a lease to use the property at the corner of Keawe Street and Ala Moana Boulevard.
HCDAstaff recommended accepting Pacific Gateway’s plan, saying in a report that the building is in need of repair and would continue to deteriorate if left unused.
“It seemed like a good fit,”said Anthony Ching, HCDAexecutive director. “This is the most credible public purpose.”
Yet one agency board member, Miles Kamimura, questioned whether the project was being rushed to avoid the grant lapsing at the end of June.
Kamimura noted that a prior HCDA assessment put the cost to rehabilitate the property at $4 million.
Ching said the $4 million was for more extensive work to the main building and two smaller buildings, and that the same local architects who consulted on the earlier assessment — Glenn Mason and Joe Ferraro — agreed that a sufficient renovation to the main building could be done for $1 million.
Ching added that Pacific Gateway might be able to raise additional money to rehabilitate the other two buildings and also use them in conjunction with the main 1,500-square-foot building.
Kamimura initially cast the only no vote on the proposal, and represented the deciding vote because five yes votes were needed but only five of HCDA’s nine directors were present. However, Kamimura changed his vote after an executive session requested by fellow board member Brian Tamamoto.
David Cheever, a Hawaii Architectural Foundation board director, said Pacific Gateway using the building is an excellent idea that will give the neglected building the care it needs and deserves.
Cheever noted in a recent commentary with architect Robert M. Fox in the Star-Advertiser that the pump station building, which was made with large cut blocks of blue stone and features an 80-foot tower, has been called one of the best examples in Hawaii of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture.
The building’s architect, O.J. Traphagen, also designed the Moana Hotel in Waikiki.
The pump station was built in 1900, ceased pumping sewage in 1955 and was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Despite its unique look, the building has posed challenges for reuse because of its small size, historic protections, repair needs, lack of plumbing and electricity, and proximity to a modern sewage pump station.
“The big problem has always been what to use (the building) for,”Cheever said.
HCDAhad long tried finding a suitable user. By the agency’s count, more than 90 formal and informal proposals — from restaurants to museums to schools — have been floated for the site.
Through a competitive bid process, the agency selected a plan in 1997 calling for a restaurant by Hawaii chef Jean-Marie Josselin plus a microbrewery and open-air market.
Josselin, however, backed out. A replacement plan for a concert hall and recording studio involving Hawaiian musician Henry Kapono and some partners in conjunction with a restaurant and microbrewery operated by local chef Russell Siu of 3660 on the Rise failed to obtain financing.
HCDAalso unsuccessfully entertained two years of efforts by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck to use the site.
In 2005, the agency commissioned a policy and development strategy to help solicit new proposals. Yet after community workshops were held in 2006, no request for proposals was made.
In 2012, land Ewa of the pump station building that had previously been included in development ideas was transferred by the Legislature from HCDA to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, making the site smaller and less attractive for commercial use.
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