State sues over fumes in brewery building
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
Seven years after trying to rid the historic Royal Brewery building in Kaka'ako of noxious fumes, the state has sued private companies that renovated the 104-year-old brick low-rise a decade ago.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The lawsuit, filed last week by the state agency that owns the building, seeks to recover unspecified damages including past and future costs incurred to remedy the problem.
The Royal Brewery building was renovated a decade ago at a cost of $28 million, but noxious fumes have kept it mostly vacant since then.
State officials were not available yesterday to say how much money has been spent trying to eliminate the odor that has left the five-story building difficult to lease.
The Hawai'i Community Development Authority spent $28 million to renovate the former home of Primo and Royal beer operations at 547 Queen St. and the adjacent Honuakaha affordable rental apartments for seniors.
The brewery building was supposed to be rented out to businesses following the renovation completed in 1996, but odors emanating from termite-treated wood caused the building's major tenant, a senior citizen center, to move out after two years of trying to put up with fumes that made some odor-sensitive tenants nauseous.
In 1998, then-agency executive director Jan Yokota said the state had tried numerous remedies, including installing ventilation system filters, removing carpets to air the wood and mitigating the odor using chemicals.
Defendants named are G.W. Murphy Construction Co., Osmose Wood Preserving Inc., OM Group Inc., PermaPost Products Co., Rinell Wood Systems Inc., Mooney Chemicals and Pan Pacific Forest Products.
The suit alleges that contractors and material suppliers knew or should have known that the treatment product, called PermaClear 65, would cause the noxious fumes.
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
