Dole expanding visitor center
By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer
Dole Plantation is embarking on a $6 million expansion that will more than double the size of its visitor attraction in Wahiawa.
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The city has approved a special-use permit for the development of an additional 6.2 acres at Dole's facility, allowing the company to increase its retail space and open a sit-down restaurant in its visitor center, as requested by visitors.
Shoppers browse in Dole Plantation's retail shop. Dole will be adding 6.2 acres to its attraction to include a sit-down restaurant, coffee mill and more retail space.
Construction will begin next year, and the company hopes to open the additional facilities by January 2006.
"Our current facility is way too small," said Susan Harada, Dole Plantation's operations manager. "We're trying to get people to come back to O'ahu. Tourism is our No. 1 industry here, and we need to constantly keep things new."
About 900,000 people visit the plantation site each year.
Dole plans to build a 17,274-square-foot building that would house retail space, a restaurant, storage and a coffee mill. In addition, the company wants to construct a visitor center and diversified agriculture-processing facility, a botanical and cultural garden with a pavilion and concessions, agricultural exhibit space and plantation village, a farmer's market with outdoor seating, and additional parking.
The expansion is expected to create 114 jobs, Harada said.
Dole also plans to open a coffee bar, using coffee grown in Waialua as way to promote agriculture on the North Shore.
Showcasing the area's varied agriculture has always been in the plans for Dole, Harada said. Part of the expansion will include a farmer's market, where local vendors can sell fresh produce to visitors.
"We started with just pineapple and sugar, and now that sugar is no longer grown here, those lands have turned into diversified ag," Harada said. "And with the (amount of) visitors we get, this is the perfect place to really promote that."
Dole opened the Plantation Garden Tour in April, showcasing the diversified agriculture offered on the North Shore. It features plots of lychee, papaya, mango, taro and corn grown in the area. Other gardens include varieties of lei flowers and bromeliads, the family of which pineapple is a member.
Last November Dole started the Pineapple Express, a 20-minute narrated train tour over two miles of working pineapple fields.
The garden and train were part of a $2 million expansion completed this year.
Dole Plantation already has the world's biggest maze, a visitor center and a garden of pineapples.
Reach Catherine E. Toth at 535-8103 or ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.
