Ala Wai Marine, a company that for decades offered Hawaii’s recreational boaters one of the few full service boatyards in the state, lost its lease with the state three years ago this month, and unfortunately for local and visiting boaters, the site has remained vacant ever since.
The state's Department of Land and Natural Resources, which is responsible for the property, along with its Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, announced in Sept. 2009 that a developer - Honey Bee USA, Inc. - had submitted the only acceptable proposal for the vacated boatyard.
Honey Bee’s proposal was to construct of a three-story building where there is currently a two-story building, and to eventually operate a boatyard that would include a wedding chapel, shops, and a restaurant. However obtaining the needed zoning variances, as well as special district and conditional use permits has apparently been problematical for the company.
"Honey Bee paid the initial $150,000 development fee and the first year expired at the end of Jan. 2011," explained DOBOR Administrator Ed Underwood. Nevertheless, the development agreement was extended and the company currently continues to pay the state $15,000 per month.
"Honey Bee is actively moving forward with the project and we plan to go before the Land Board at its second meeting this month to request the issuance of a lease," Underwood added.
Perhaps one of the stumbling blocks in Honey Bee’s ability to obtain the variances it needs is an “Indenture and Deed” document dated Dec. 20, 1956 that established an exchange of land between Ala Moana Properties and the Territory of Hawaii, which among other things, limited the Territory (now the state) to using the properties for “public recreation and/or a roadway.”
It is unclear if the boatyard property falls into the area described in the document, but it would be difficult to imagine a wedding chapel as an allowable use if it does.
Underwood has said that Honey Bee feels confident they will get the variances but that he was not sure what the City/County of Honolulu might say. Underwood also noted that DOBOR has nevertheless been utilizing the area and collecting fees for the use of the property.
That utilization over the past three years has included providing space for television and film production crews, a tow yard for illegally parked automobiles and most recently a storage area for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. The on-going use of the property as a transient home for vagrants has likely produced no income.
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