KAHULUI - A&B still wants to go "back to the future" with a redevelopment of downtown Kahului, but plans are on hold due to the uncertain economy, The Maui News reported today.

The company's plans include the 20-acre Kahului Town Center on the site of the old Kahului Shopping Center and the 3.8-acre Aina O Kane at the corner of Kane and Vevau streets nearby. Both projects are planned to include a mix of residential and commercial space.

But A&B Properties Vice President Grant Chun said the company had pushed back the plans, hoping to time the projects so that construction is complete when the real estate market starts picking up again.

"Ideally, we'd be kicking off the projects already, but we're still in the process of assessing," he said.

Both projects have all the land use entitlements they need in order to proceed, and Chun said A&B is in the process of planning construction.

"We're closely monitoring how long the sense of uncertainty may last," he said.

When they do break ground, the developments would transform an old neighborhood of Kahului, taking it back to its roots, Chun said.

Kahului started as a compact, dense "port town" built around the coming and going in Kahului Harbor and at a lumberyard nearby.

Later, the town expanded as Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., a subsidiary of A&B, developed Dream City housing for its plantation workers, who had previously lived in company housing, mainly in Paia.

"Kahului is all about A&B," Chun said.

Today, Kahului gets short shrift when compared with quainter towns nearby, like Wailuku, Paia and Makawao, Chun said.

"People who are new to Maui maybe don't realize that Kahului actually has a rich history, a fascinating history," he said. "What we're trying to achieve is a better focus on Kahului as a town."

Chun said he had no trouble envisioning that town. He grew up walking the area when it was still a bustling neighborhood, and his grandparents lived in a house on Lurline Street perpendicular to Lono Avenue.

He said the company drew on old photographs and maps of the area, and interviews with old-timers, to create plans for the redevelopment.

"We're lucky to have some of the old structures and street patterns to give us clues," he said.

* Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@maui news.com.