When Amfac officials announced they were getting out of the sugar business on Kaua‘i nearly three years ago, people were worried about what would become of hundreds of employees and thousands of acres of land. Aided by a strong island
When Amfac officials announced they were getting out of the sugar business on Kaua‘i nearly three years ago, people were worried about what would become of hundreds of employees and thousands of acres of land.
Aided by a strong island economy, government and private entities joined forces to help ease the 300-plus former plantation workers into new jobs and careers.
Gay & Robinson sugar company and a consortium of smaller farmers gobbled up nearly all of the leases for the state-owned lands formerly farmed as Amfac Sugar Kauai subsidiary Kekaha Sugar Company, Limited, in the Kekaha area.
A well-known former Hawai‘i resident, Steve Case of AOL Time Warner, bought the 20,000 acres formerly known as Lihue Plantation, allowing through lease and license agreements many local farmers, ranchers and flower-growers to realize dreams of running their own operations.
But not many people were concerned, either then or now, about the fate of the plantation office buildings.
Turns out, there was good reason for that lack of concern about the historic structures.
The Lihue Plantation Building, behind the post office and First Hawaiian Bank off Rice Street in Lihu‘e, sold even before the plantations closed down, with LP officials leasing back nearly the entire second story of the building for managers and human-resources folks as plantation operations wound down.
It now houses a myriad of businesses and community-service operations, including Kauai United Way and Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce, offices for Christian radio stations, and the largest single tenant, Child and Family Service, occupying nearly the entire second floor.
The former Kekaha Sugar office building, on Kekaha Road near the mill visible miles away because of its protruding smokestack, recently sold to a group headed by local real-estate professional Robert J. “Bob” German of Aloha Island Properties in Lihu‘e.
The building, which is being renovated and is now for sale or lease and has prospective buyers and tenants, has over 9,000 square feet of office space on nearly two acres zoned general industrial.
Currently, there are no tenants. Besides the former Kekaha Sugar offices, the building had housed the Kekaha Federal Credit Union, which moved into a new building further down Kekaha Road.
Amfac’s asking price of $235,000 made the former Kekaha Sugar office building and grounds too good a deal for German to pass up. So he bought it. German had worked as seller’s agent for Amfac on several of Amfac’s former LP lands, including those purchased by Case, and lands at Hanama‘ulu bought by Ernest Moody of Las Vegas.
The LP building houses the last Amfac employee on Kaua‘i, Elodie Moniz, whose second-floor, 700-square-foot office includes her desk, employee records for pensions and other purposes, and little else.
The LP building is 95 percent occupied, said owner Grant Welsh. Its tenants include one business he owns and operates, Hale Oihana.
An elevator being built at the front of the building will be done by the end of this year, at which time Welsh will start refurbishing the parking lots, he said.
Attorneys, an architectural company, a business-services endeavor, Malama Pono-Kauai AIDS Project (which provides services to Kaua‘i’s AIDS and HIV-positive residents and their loved ones and support systems), and other entities occupy the building.
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
