Kalaeloa still waiting for redevelopment
| • | Map: Kalaeloa Redevelopment Plan |
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
KALAELOA — Six years ago, Linda Painter's Subway sandwich shop at Barbers Point Naval Air Station was one of the top-selling stores in the state.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
These days, it's weeds that seem to be flourishing the most since the Navy shut down its air operations in 1999, and whole sections of the 3,700-acre base on the 'Ewa plain turned into a militaristic ghost town.
Leaves and weeds have taken over the concourse near what used to be the Navy Exchange, right, and Furniture Gallery and a restaurant at Kalaeloa since the Navy closed Barbers Point Naval Air Station four years ago.
Attached to the Subway, a McDonald's restaurant with leaves scattered across the floor sits empty, as do the adjacent Navy Exchange and Furniture World — once bustling centers now overrun by bougainvillea and trees whose growth has gone unchecked.
A USA Today newspaper box stands in the covered causeway, long since emptied of the day's news, and vandals have smashed in the front plate glass door of Furniture World.
Painter said she's surviving on pockets of habitation — Hawai'i Army National Guard and Coast Guard elements mostly. But after several years of planning for the base closure, followed by little activity over the last few years, she is not happy with the new Kalaeloa.
"June of 1999 it closed, and look at the place," she said. "They (state and city government) had six years to budget for this area."
With Kapolei homes reaching to Roosevelt Road, Ko Olina moving ahead to the west, and 'Ewa Beach growing to the east, Kalaeloa — "the long point" — remains a diamond whose rough edges are not so easily smoothed.
A 168-acre shoreline park, sports center, new raceway park, and significant light industry and commercial development have failed to materialize at the former base that has as much white-sand beach as Waikiki.
Some blame the lack of redevelopment on the need for expensive infrastructure repairs, array of federal, state and city landowners each pursuing separate plans, and a shortage of money to accomplish those goals.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"Not that everything was going to hit all at once, but, hopefully, some of these (groups) would get in there and make some improvements and spur others to keep it going," said Mike Golojuch, a Makakilo, Kapolei, Honokai Hale neighborhood board member.
Barbers Point, now Kalaeloa, is still largely undeveloped.
"That hasn't really happened, even with the (National) Guard doing their thing and a few others," Golujuch said. "It's just slowed down to a crawl and that's unfortunate. I think most people, whether they say it or not, have sort of given up hope."
Oversight for redevelopment is now with the Hawai'i Community Development Authority, which took over last July for the dissolved Barbers Point Naval Air Station Commission. Although the Legislature passed along the responsibility to HCDA, it did not provide any money for planning.
HCDA Executive Director Jan Yokota said what may be needed now is for the various property owners to re-think how the land has been divvied up.
"The thought is the land-use plan that is in place right now may not be the best land-use plan to promote economic development, or to promote some sort of job base," Yokota said.
Reapportioning the land under a revised comprehensive plan may make more sense, she said.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"For example, the parks land — maybe there's a better use for (some of) that that would help develop jobs," Yokota said.
The entrance of what used to be the Navy Exchange has had its front doors damaged by vandals.
The biggest land owners include the National Guard, with 145 acres; Department of Hawaiian Homelands, with 555 acres; Department of Transportation, with three runways and 805 acres; and Department of Parks and Recreation, with 485 acres.
About half of the Hawaiian Homelands land, some of the DOT land, and all of the Parks and Recreation parcels remain to be conveyed. The Navy is working on the final deeds for some city parcels.
Navy-retained lands amount to 1,052 acres, which include 548 housing units. About 190 are occupied.
As part of a plan to finance the re-development of Ford Island, the Navy plans to sell some outlying properties, including 725 acres at Kalaeloa, but it will retain Barbers Point Golf Course, commissary facilities, and White Plains and Nimitz beach properties.
Under a 1993 round of military base closures, the Navy in 1999 moved 32 P-3C Orion aircraft, 10 SH-60 helicopters and most of the jobs held by 2,200 sailors and civilians to the Marine base at Kane'ohe.
The Coast Guard has 44 acres and C-130 and HH-65 Dolphin helicopters at Kalaeloa, there is a homeless facility, a flight school, and Barbers Point Elementary School, but barriers remain to large-scale redevelopment.
The Navy has spent about $63 million so far for environmental remediation at Kalaeloa. A consultant estimated that upgrading facilities to city standards would cost $26.3 million for roads, $27.5 million for the sewer system, and $34.6 million for the water system.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"You don't see too much private sector in here," said Kali Watson, chairman of Quality Homes of the Pacific, a company in Kalaeloa that makes affordable homes with Native Hawaiians as a target market.
Knee-high weeds and unchecked brush have grown along Saratoga Avenue near the baseball field.
A more than 80,000-square-foot hangar, vacant for two years before Watson rented it in February, is used to manufacture the steel-frame homes.
Passing cars are few and far between. A series of boarded-up military buildings across the street sit in a sea of waist-high weeds. The location, perfect for Watson, is not so for many others.
"Part of (the problem) is transition, the transfer of lands. There are environmental issues. Part of it is infrastructure, and part of it is the facilities aren't great for the private sector," Watson said. "I mean, you've got dormitories. What are you going to do with dormitories?"
There are also warehouses, but "the termites are holding hands, and that's all that's keeping them up," Watson said.
"They've got to make it attractive," he said. "That's why you've got Ko Olina taking off — they gave them a $75 million tax credit. I think that's what you need over here."
State officials expect the approval of the tax credit for the construction of an aquarium at the resort community to serve as a catalyst for growth and jobs.
Yokota said base closure redevelopment money that would have been available after the base closed no longer can be obtained. But other federal sources of money will be sought.
"Right now, with the absence of a strong economic plan, it's really hard to ask anyone for funding," Yokota said. "But I think you have to try. You have to pull that (economic plan) together first and see whether you can get federal funding or any other source to do it."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Some informal meetings on redevelopment have been held between land owners and the city, but not much more.
White Plains Beach at Kalaeloa, formerly Barbers Point Naval Air Station, is now a popular spot for locals and novice surfers. While some complain of litter, others enjoy the beach's off-the-beaten-path feel.
There are positive signs at Kalaeloa. The National Guard has spent about $20 million there, and is projected to spend $100 million over 10 years for relocation efforts.
In its first year, the general aviation Kalaeloa Airport had about 150,000 airport operations — takeoffs, landings, fly-bys and touch-and-gos. That number has increased by about 10,000 a year, and for 2002 stood at 188,831 operations, said Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa.
This summer, one of the runways will be repaved, and taxiway lights will be replaced.
White Plains Beach, meanwhile, has long breaks that make it good for novice surfers.
"On weekends, this place is packed," said Janelle Holtz, 34, after staking out a spot on a recent afternoon. "It's a good place to come with the family."
Although others have complained about litter, the Salt Lake resident said, "I've never seen it trashy, even the bathroom."
Holtz says isn't sure she'd welcome the changes that redevelopment would bring. She'd like White Plains Beach to remain like it is — off the beaten path.
"If you notice, a lot of locals come out here," she said. "Can you kinda see, they make this into a big park, there's big opportunities for a snack bar other than this one, people are just going to come flood in here."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
