KILAUEA — The arrival of a 65-foot-long wastewater treatment tank at the new Lighthouse Village Shopping Center in Kilauea on Thursday brought the long-delayed project one step closer to completion and a possible opening in early 2019.
The tank — and a slightly smaller one that arrived Wednesday — are the heart of a wastewater treatment system more advanced than what had originally been planned for the center. The tanks and the machinery to pump waste represent the developers’ concession to community concerns about a previous exclusive reliance on septic tanks for the complex.
The increased capacity was in line with a decision by Foodland stores to expand the new store — now projected to open in April — to increase prepared food offerings. The store will be a community supermarket of a type not previously seen on Kauai and will emphasize locally sourced goods, according to a Foodland spokesperson who addressed the Kilauea Neighborhood Association meeting.
In all, by the time it opens, Lighthouse Village will have completed more than $4 million in infrastructure improvements that included adding turn lanes at Kilauea Road and Keneke Street, installing sidewalks and relocating utilities.
The project has faced frequent and substantial delays, however, leading at times to community frustration.
Mike Lam, senior vice president of the developer, the Hunt Companies, and Kirsten Hermstad, the construction superintendent, said they hope those concerns will be alleviated as the project nears completion.
“We can see the finish line,” Lam said. “It’s right there.”
“This is a neighborhood shopping center,” Hermstad said. “We’re open to uses like a gym and other small operators. We want local businesses to come in and we want tenants to do well here.”
Chief among Lighthouse Village’s contributions will be the presence of a local supermarket, eliminating the need for Kilauea residents to drive to Princeville to shop. It may also relieve some of the overcrowding and congestion that are often encountered at Foodland’s Princeville store.
Although delays have stretched the timetable to plan and build the shopping center to nearly six years, Lam and Hermstad noted that the problem with getting the job finished in 2018 can be attributed to weather-related delays that have meant 84 days lost in 2018 and a total of 186 since construction began in October 2016.
Still up in the air is a construction date for a new entry road for Kilauea Town.
As things stand, already congested Kilauea Road will be the only way to reach the new shopping center. The problem was to be addressed by a new access road, but county and state officials have put the project on hold until sometime after 2020, a persistent sore point with the community over which the Hunt Company says it has no control.
In all, Lam said, Hunt expects the new center to attract a total of 20 top 25 businesses, which so far include an art gallery, a shave ice business and an animal hospital. Lam and Hermstad said the plan for the new shopping center is still evolving, with these features nearly ready to open or under close consideration:
w A meeting room that can be reserved without charge by community groups. The developers are commissioning an interior mural for the community room, which will be furnished with chairs and tables, as well as a long counter.
w Two or more spaces are planned to help food truck operators make the transition to a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Other available spaces include kitchen and service areas to serve as restaurant incubators.
w Under consideration are two or more artist studio spaces. Though they will not be live-work spaces, the studios could begin to alleviate a chronic shortage of legal spaces where artists can work. Although the original concept for the center included live-work space, they were eliminated because of limitations on the amount of water available to service the development.
w A limited number “plain vanilla” retail spaces with painted walls and finished ceilings will be available to attract new business startups.
w The entire complex will offer free WiFi.
“We are trying to look at creative ways to do something very special,” Hermstad said. “Several spaces between 400 and 1,000 square feet have been designed to try to attract community services.”
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Allan Parachini is a Kilauea resident and a retired public relations executive who writes periodically for The Garden Island.
Not sure you should include “relocating utilities” as infrastructure improvements. So we get some sidewalks and a turn lane. Big deal.