LIHU‘E — The closure of Big Save Supermarket in Lihu‘e in June 2011 left a void in the surrounding community, who can no longer walk to do their grocery shopping. But Big Save’s departure from the Pi‘ikoi Building also punched a hole in the county’s piggy bank.
The county acquired the building more than 20 years ago, and developed part of it into a modern facility for county agencies, but kept Big Save as a tenant. Since the grocery store left the building, the county has yet to rent the space, missing out on additional revenues.
“Twenty-three months ago this space was vacated, and we have never seen a plan,” Kaua‘i County Council Chair Jay Furfaro told County Engineer Larry Dill at a council meeting Wednesday.
“Tell me ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Do you know how much money was left on the table when the tenant left?” Furfaro said.
Dill said he thinks he does, but couldn’t confirm the amount.
The Pi‘ikoi Building has been a county asset for a long time.
“I know I’m dating myself now, but I was on the County Council when we voted to acquire the shopping center,” said Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura, who served on the council before serving as Kaua‘i’s mayor from 1988 to 1994. She returned to the council in 2002.
Yukimura said that looking in retrospect, buying Pi‘ikoi Building was one of the smartest moves the council made, because it kept all county facilities together, except for the Kaua‘i Police Department and the Office of Prosecuting Attorney.
A portion of Pi‘ikoi has been renovated and occupied by quite a few government services and agencies. The latest agency to move there was the Kaua‘i Fire Department. But the bulk of the building is still empty.
Councilman Tim Bynum said no private entity would leave a valuable asset like that without generating any income for a long time.
“I think the council has been anxious to build out that space and use it,” said Bynum, adding the council has put funding forward and has “prodded” the process.
And then there was an office space study done in 2010, which took a long time to complete and is now “obsolete in essence,” Bynum said.
An office space study for Pi‘ikoi was done in 2010, and while there were no assumptions for the future, it was thought that the space rented by Big Save would continue to house a food market and would not become available for office space for the county, Dill said.
Currently, construction activity can be heard from behind the glass doors — covered with plastic — of the former supermarket’s main entrance. Dill said an asbestos abatement project is ongoing at the site, at a cost of approximately $180,000.
Furfaro said there are opportunities for some of the space to utilized by Cattlemen’s Association as a processing facility, and to house the County Auditor’s Office, which is in a private office elsewhere in Lihu‘e.
Additionally, the Kaua‘i Historical Society has a lease in the Historic County Building, where the council functions. Furfaro said the council will eventually need more room to carry operations, and the society could move to the former Big Save site.
Bynum said his “two cents” would be a suggestion that the county would reserve 6,000 to 7,000 square feet for commercial space, possibly housing a grocery store to serve the community in Lihu‘e.
The closest grocery stores are Times Supermarket at Kukui Grove Center and Walmart near Wilcox Memorial Hospital.
Councilman Ross Kagawa said he had a personal interest on the site, because he lives quite close to the building, and he got to know the Big Save workers by name. He said the administration needs to work with the council to find a long-term solution.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
