A year and a half after Lahaina Small Boat Harbor sustained $30 million worth of damage in the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires, full reopening is not expected until at least 2026 or 2027, and even then it is dependent on the state addressing at least a $10 million estimated shortfall and on achieving timely permitting and construction.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources Department of Boating and Ocean Recreation has said that firming up funding is necessary to set the timeline for reopening Lahaina harbor.
“It would be an additional $10 million in estimated shortfall at this time, if we get legislative funding for the $13 million (that has been put into Gov. Josh Green’s 2025 budget),” DOBOR staff said. “We may be able to use insurance money if that is allocated to the Department by Budget and Finance.”
DOBOR and DLNR officials said there were approximately 95 vessels, both recreational and commercial, in Lahaina harbor prior to the fire, and approximately 48 recreational vessels and 28 commercial vessels were destroyed. Some owners have begun to make replacement progress through insurance or by making other plans. But the uncertain timing for the full reopening of Lahaina harbor continues to hit Maui’s commercial boating, its activities and attractions markets, and its ancillary businesses.
The department has begun to make some progress toward the rebuilding and reopening of Lahaina harbor and related Mala Wharf and Ramp repairs. In January new plastic lumber fenders were installed around Lahaina harbor’s main loading pier, new cleats were put in and concrete patch repairs were completed. A water leak assessment and plan to make related repairs at Lahaina harbor has an April 21 completion date targeted. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers submitted a permit Jan. 23 for the $1.5 million Mala boat ramp dredging project, and the solicitation for bids expected later this month, with an April start date and an October finish date anticipated.
Discussion also is taking place to allow some boats to operate from the loading docks rather than slips as early as March or April. DOBOR staff said, “It is a possibility once the county reopens the roadways to the harbor. We don’t have any criteria at this time and will need to discuss this with the operators.”
Heidi Speedie, operations manager of Kolea Charters, which operates Reefdancer, a semi-sub destroyed in Lahaina harbor, said some of the West Maui commercial boating fleet would benefit if DOBOR allows operating from the loading docks. However, she said she must wait until Reefdancer’s slip is ready because of the potential for starts and stops and unresolved issues like customer parking to negatively affect the huge restarting investment.
Speedie said she found a new vessel that she could purchase to replace Reefdancer in Alaska; however, the owners will not hold the vessel for her, and she cannot purchase it until there is a place to put it and operations are allowed.
“It looks like our estimated completion of the front row of the harbor, the commercial section, is October of 2026. We’ll try to wait that long, but we are a very tiny business which once had 22 employees (and) now has zero employees,” she said. “Most of the businesses out here are small family owned businesses other than Atlantis. I don’t know if anybody has the investors and the savings to last that long.”
Speedie estimates that out of the 32 or so commercial permit holders at Lahaina harbor, at least eight are stuck doing nothing, while three are operating in another way and eight are using sister locations like Maalaea or Kaanapali.
Atlantis CEO and President Ron Williams said it’s been a “tough road” for Atlantis Submarines, which lost a $10 million submarine, a $150,000 tugboat, a skiff and two offices in the Lahaina harbor fire. One of the company’s employees died in the fire, and some Maui employees have left the company to take care of personal challenges or because they couldn’t wait for Atlantis Submarines to reopen on Maui.
Williams told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the Holokai, a 55-foot-passenger vessel that Atlantis Submarines used to shuttle passengers to Maui submarine, has been repaired and that the company’s spare submarine is available for Maui. But the vessels are currently moored on Oahu, and he said he has no idea when they might return to Maui, which represented a third of the company’s business.
“I have assets that I have to take care of that are not producing any revenues,” Williams said. “It’s a tough situation.”
He said Atlantis had 174 employees statewide before the fire and has fallen to 140 employees since.
“There was a hope that this Lahaina harbor would come back faster,” Williams said, adding that the Maui downturn is on top of the downturn in Japanese visitors since COVID-19, which has adversely affected operations in Kona and Waikiki.
Williams said Atlantis initially helped some displaced Maui employees with housing and health care; however, he said as of this summer, the company ran out of resources to continue those supports.
Javier Barberi, co-owner of two businesses, Down the Hatch and the Breakwall Shave Ice Co., which burned down in the Lahaina fire and were across from Lahaina harbor, said restoring Lahaina harbor is key to supporting the rebuilding of West Maui, and questioned the pace so far.
“I don’t think 2026 or 2027 is ambitious at all; I feel like that’s late. They should have had the harbor open a year open after the fires,” Barberi said. “They built an entire city in Kahului. They have built another one across from King’s Cathedral, and they built an entire city above Wahikuli. Why can’t they build a harbor? I’m kind of baffled.”
Hunter Betts, owner of South Maui Fish Co., which spends about $500,000 annually buying fresh fish from local fishermen, said he would never say that the harbor rebuilding should take precedence over home rebuilding.
“But the fact is that it’s two different entities because the harbor is the state and the homes are the county land — so it’s not taking from one to make the other,” Betts said.
He added that it is important from a state perspective to get Lahaina harbor back up and running, even if that means exploring privatization, as it was “the highest-grossing small-boat harbor,” and its continued shutdown is hurting locals.
“I can sit here and tell you of at least 20 people that I know who have lost their income, their jobs. Some of them have moved off the island,” he said. “That harbor was the hub of the town for centuries, and it seems to me to rebuild the town you have to start at the heart. I know it’s a huge, difficult task — it’s heartbreaking. A lot of people lost everything and everyone.”
Barberi said the other three businesses that he co-owns, Coco Deck, Mala Ocean Tavern and Pizza Paradiso, have allowed him and his partners some latitude to wait out Lahaina. However, he said efforts to restore the harbor warrant fast-tracking as it provides jobs for those who live in Lahaina and brings a critical mass of customers who support harbor-related businesses as well as trickle- down support for the region’s retailers, food and beverage operators and other ancillary businesses.
“The harbor is one of the heartbeats for Lahaina town,” Barberi said. “I feel like we were probably the busiest restaurant on Front Street, and our location across from the harbor had a ton to do with that — maybe 25% to 30% of our business was harbor traffic. We had 92 employees at the Down the Hatch and Breakwall, but now only 20 of them are with us.”
With Lahaina harbor down, Barberi said some businesses can still make it work, but he cautioned that everything is cohesive.
“It’s like a body: You need your ankle, your foot and your arm. You can operate without your left arm, but is it easier to play catch and throw with that arm? Yes,” he said. “The harbor being here helps everyone. The harbor being gone is just one less reason for people to come to Lahaina.”
