Indigo's downtown lease extended for six more months
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
Indigo Eurasian Cuisine will remain in downtown Honolulu for at least six more months following an agreement reached Monday with landowner Hawai'i Theatre Center to extend the restaurant's lease past its Sept. 30 expiration.
For a decade Indigo has been drawing a dining and drinking crowd that enjoys chef Glen Chu's Asian-inspired cuisine often combined with a night at the theater or other nightclubs. But contentious negotiations in the past year have prevented the two parties from reaching agreement on a new lease.
The extension will allow negotiations to continue or for the restaurant to search for a new location, said Chu. Sticking points in the negotiations have included the price per square foot, the length of the lease — five or 10 years — and spending on maintenance and improvements by both sides.
"We'd like to start negotiating and trying to hammer this out," said Chu. "For me personally, I don't think I can stand another six months of not knowing what we are going to be doing with our lives and also the lives of our 80 employees. It really is time to make a decision on the future."
Sarah Richards, president of the Hawai'i Theatre, said the board of directors was happy to extend the lease through March 31, 2004.
"We've always said we want to have a good restaurant there," Richards said. "And if we can work out a deal with Indigo, that is just fine. If it is another restaurant, well then, it is another restaurant."
Indigo and the Hawai'i Theatre have been cornerstones in the effort to develop the area between the high rises of downtown and the shops of Chinatown into a center for culture and the arts. If the popular restaurant were to close, it would leave yet another empty storefront on Nu'uanu Avenue, which has too many vacancies, said Rich Richardson, assistant director of The ARTS at Marks Garage.
Indigo is "an important part of the formula that brings people downtown and provides an anchor here," said Richardson. "(Losing it) would really alter the momentum we have toward the creative development that we envision for the area."
The ARTS at Marks Garage has been instrumental in creating the popular First Friday walking tours of art galleries and entertainment downtown the first Friday of each month.
Business owners and residents have been working for years to create the Honolulu Culture & Arts District in the downtown/Chinatown area. That, along with the creation of the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District, the expansion of the Weed & Seed crime-fighting area and the effort to ease housing restrictions in the Chinatown Special District to allow for artists' lofts are efforts toward bringing a new residential component to the area.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
