Posted on: Monday, May 31, 2004

Reward offered in Makakilo vandalism

By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer

Concrete company Grace Pacific Corp. is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone with information about a recent vandalism to a golf clubhouse on its property in Makakilo.

The former clubhouse of the defunct Pu'u Makakilo Golf Course was broken into and vandalized between April 1 and 4. More than 120 picture windows on both levels of the two-story clubhouse were shattered with rocks and pipes. The vandals also smashed plaster wallboards and left graffiti on the walls.

According to the company, the damage is around $50,000.

"They went up there to specifically break windows," said Bob Singlehurst, vice president of quarry operations. "And they worked there all night to do it, I'm sure."

Grace Pacific was planning to turn the clubhouse into a corporate office.

The clubhouse is a well-known structure to Leeward commuters. The tan, red-roofed building sits on a hill on the mauka side of H-1 between the 'Ewa and Kapolei exits. It overlooks what would have been terraced fairways.

Pu'u Makakilo Golf Course was the $70 million development project of a group of Japanese investors in the early '90s. But the project foundered when the bubble burst in the Japanese investment market. Grace Pacific bought the course and buildings, including the clubhouse, at a foreclosure auction for $12.6 million in November 1994.

The area isn't suitable for a golf course, Singlehurst said, because it requires about 750,000 gallons of water a day to keep it green.

The concrete company, which operates the nearby basalt rock quarry, plans to develop a quarry on about 40 of the 300 acres it bought. The former golf course surrounds the quarry, which is owned by Campbell Estate.

The clubhouse hasn't been manned by security for several years. The only thing keeping out trespassers is a chain-link fence with barbed wire. It's only accessible through the quarry and Pueonani Street, which ends at the edge of Grace Pacific's property.

That hasn't stopped trespassers, Singlehurst said. They've found broken beer bottles and trash in the clubhouse. One New Year's Eve, vandals set off fireworks inside the building, he said.

After the vandalism last month, however, the company has had to employ a 24-hour security watch, which can cost $9,000 a month, Singlehurst said.

The company will most likely have to pay for the repairs incurred by the vandals, but it wanted to make a point:

"Our company culture is to be good citizens and to be responsible for what you do," Singlehurst said. "(This) really got to us. We will do whatever we can to catch these people and make them responsible for their actions."

If you have information about the vandalism, call (866) 526-2022.

Reach Catherine E. Toth at 535-8103 or ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.