Puna shopping center gets zoning
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
KEA'AU, Hawai'i — Puna's first major shopping complex won final approval this week from the Hawai'i County Council.
The panel voted 6-3 to approve rezoning 32 acres of W.H. Shipman land, from agricultural use to commercial and industrial use, for the $30 million center.
Robert Saunders, president of the Shipman firm — the largest private landowner in the district — hopes the center will be open for business in 12 to 18 months after leases are signed.
He declined yesterday to name any of the prospective tenants, but said he has "a handshake agreement" with a grocery anchor that needs to be translated into a legal document.
Wendell Brooks of Chaney, Brooks & Co., a commercial leasing company based in Honolulu, is representing Shipman.
The site is near Kea'au Village, a former sugar plantation town about seven miles south of Hilo and adjacent to the existing Shipman Industrial Park.
The council's action on the final reading is almost a year after the initial approval. The delay came after Mayor Harry Kim, a native of Kea'au, appeared before the council to request a deferral to deal with traffic concerns.
That led to an agreement that eventually will require a $1 million access road to be built by Shipman when traffic increases. Saunders said he doubts the road will have to be constructed until 2012.
The development was opposed by Puna councilwoman Julie Jacobson, Hilo member Aaron Chung and Kona member Curtis Tyler III.
Chung said his concern is that Gateway will redefine the urban center of Puna, identified in the 2000 federal census as the state's fastest-growing area.
However, County Council Chairman Jimmy Arakaki, who also was raised in Kea'au, went along with the rezoning. Earlier, Arakaki had agreed with Kim to delay the action
