KILAUEA — The developer of the 46,800-square-foot Kilauea Lighthouse Village shopping center, approved to be across the street from Kong Lung Center, expects to break ground in August, and the project could be finished in about 14 months. Hunt Development
KILAUEA — The developer of the 46,800-square-foot Kilauea Lighthouse Village shopping center, approved to be across the street from Kong Lung Center, expects to break ground in August, and the project could be finished in about 14 months.
Hunt Development Group project consultant Paul Kyno said at a Kilauea Neighborhood Association meeting Tuesday the general contractor’s priority will be hiring local contractors and laborers.
All construction is expected to be completed sometime in October 2014, according to Kyno.
The Kaua‘i Planning Commission approved the shopping center on June 27. The Kilauea community had a strong concern with the potential for 1,000 additional cars per day making their way along Kilauea Road.
Early work will involve installing a construction trailer, infrastructure and a construction road linking Kuhio Highway to the project site, rather than using Kilauea Road as the access to the shopping center’s construction site.
But the county Department of Public Works still has some concerns.
“We are working with Public Works on minor changes, such as adding a bus stop, but any more changes would probably be to improve the parking area,” Kyno said. “We are providing all of the parking in the back and on the side (of the shopping mall), and the semicircle there now is not considered part of this project.”
The entrance to the new road will be across the highway from the Kilauea Mini Golf driveway, and will come out near the Kilauea Post Office, he said. It will be a gravel construction road with spotted paving where necessary.
Funding efforts are underway to pave a permanent road in 2014. When the shopping center is complete, the county is expected to use the construction road to create a permanent highway entrance to Kilauea.
Hunt is also working on traffic and parking issues with neighboring businesses, Kyno said. He assured that the design is made for community rather than tourist shops.
“We are waiting approval on building and grading permits submitted earlier this year to go through the Department of Public Works and the Building (Division),” said Jose Bustamante, vice president of Hunt Companies’ Hawai‘i region development division.
On the phone Thursday, Bustamante said that Bill Hay owns the land that the construction road will cut through. It will be a utility road, and after the mall’s construction is complete, Hay intends to donate the land to the county for a new permanent town entry road.
A permanent road would require engineering and grading work that takes much longer to accomplish, he said. The county would also make the alignment straighter to where it comes out by the post office.
“The entrance to the shopping center is on the new road,” Bustamante said. “The address of the shopping center will be an address of the new road and not Kilauea (Lighthouse) Road.”
Hunt Construction is working on a Green certification for sustainable building in the design and construction of the shopping center. The certification requires use of earth-friendly building materials, an energy efficient design including photovoltaic.
The shopping center will have a “unique flavor,” with a plantation style setting, he said.
The surrounding land and businesses are either owned by Hunt or have an agreement in the works for shared parking.
Hunt also owns the O’Connor Realty building, which is being integrated into the shopping center space.
“We purchased the O’Connor building a year-and-a-half ago,” Bustamante said. “We designed it to blend in nicely with the shopping center.”
The existing semi-circle road is owned by the county. A stone buildings is owned by Mark Nesselman, and the fish market is on third-party land with work ongoing to design a shared parking plan.
Crosswalks coming from Kong Lung Center, Bustamante said, will provide safe pedestrian traffic between the two shopping areas. The center will be part of the bike path with plenty of bicycle parking.
Current tenants include a grocery market, a gym and fitness center, banks and ATM kiosks, restaurants, and possibly a hardware store. Hunt said he couldn’t disclose the names of applicants until the leasing process is complete.
Hunt would like for one restaurant to utilize the 4,000 feet of food area space, Bustamante said. A redesign to accommodate more than one restaurant is the alternative.
“We have a handful of prospects for the restaurant,” he said. “We do have some flexibility to cut into 2,000 feet each.
Competition is about the due diligence of the potential tenants to get their plans in order and approved, Bustamante said.
All construction will be operated under Hunt Companies, with Hunt Construction as the developer. Some specialty work will be performed by Honolulu contractors, but the project intends to hire as much local labor and subcontractors as possible.
“We prefer to hire the subcontractors directly and not another general contractor on Kaua‘i to in-turn hire subcontractors,” he said.
Hunt Construction will in turn circulate bid packages to subcontractors on Kaua‘i to bid for certain scopes of work for construction of the shopping center and upgrading the post office road, he said.
“We are still collecting names from Kaua‘i and recommend that anyone interested can contact the construction contract manager Shane Arnold at Hunt Companies, he said. They would then be added to the email list for all information and forms concerning subcontracting.
After construction there will be contracting opportunities for landscaping, security and maintenance. Hunt is still deciding on how long it would manage the property on site or to hire a site management firm.
• Tom LaVenture, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0424 or tlaventure@thegardenisland.com.
