Posted on: Friday, May 2, 2003

Progress made on cemetery

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The owners of Honolulu Memorial Park plan to file a status report with the bankruptcy court today saying they are making progress with a friends group to take over the financially troubled cemetery and are willing to continue the process rather than moving for Chapter 7 liquidation.

Jerrold Guben, attorney for members of the Richards family who own the cemetery, said he has been meeting with the Friends of Hono-lulu Memorial Park steering committee and a plan is being formulated to take over the park and save its historic but deteriorating pagoda.

"We were discussing both interim and long-term solutions that would take into account the immediate maintenance costs, the pagoda restoration and even the Honolulu Memorial Association, which is a non-debtor, and their perpetual care fund issues," Guben said. "It is a very comprehensive, long-term solution as well as looking at some of the short-term, stop-gap measures."

Guben last month said if a plan couldn't be drafted by niche and plot holders by May 1, the Richards brothers would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, after which the court would appoint a trustee to close the park and liquidate the assets.

Guben said there is also a prospective buyer for the cemetery and the present owners want to keep alive the possibility of selling the property if the friends groups fail to complete the transition.

Ann Ono, a Friends group member, said it will take time and money to get the cemetery back in shape.

"If our plan goes through we are looking at at least two years to get everything — the maintenance and the restoration of the pagoda going," Ono said. "We are looking at grants and there is some interest from the Historic Hawai'i Foundation. We do have some prospects."

Ono deferred on details of the plan to Friends attorney Christian Porter, who did not return calls seeking comment.

At a meeting of niche and plot holders last month, Porter said there was a possibility that adequate money could be raised through outside sources. Porter said the Friends could operate the park through a nonprofit organization that would first focus on finding money to maintain the park, and thereafter concentrate on restoring the pagoda.

The Nu'uanu Avenue cemetery was founded in 1958. The Richards brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2001, saying the cemetery is insolvent and that it would cost $1 million to repair the 37-year-old pagoda, a replica of the Sanju Pagoda in Nara, Japan.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan to tear down the pagoda at a cost of $200,000 and reorganize the business was withdrawn in February by the Richards family after the idea was rejected by pagoda niche holders, who have a stake in the cemetery's bankruptcy filing.

Reach James Gonser at 535-2431 or jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.