All of the buildings at Kauai Lagoons formerly known as Artisans Landing are now gone, and a portion of the buildings formerly known as Fashion Landing were also recently demolished. And, somewhere above, it’s hard to tell if the late
All of the buildings at Kauai Lagoons formerly known as Artisans Landing are now gone, and a portion of the buildings formerly known as Fashion Landing were also recently demolished.
And, somewhere above, it’s hard to tell if the late developer Christopher “Chris” Hemmeter is laughing or crying.
Hemmeter, who came riding to Kaua‘i on his white horse after Hurricane ‘Iwa in 1982 to help redevelop the former Kauai Surf property and adjacent golf course into a super resort where people wouldn’t need to rent cars or have any need to journey off resort property for any reason whatsoever, conceived of the ideas for the Artisans Landing and Fashion Landing, reachable primarily by mahogany boats plying the lagoon waterway system.
Once boasting upscale restaurants and shops, the two landings were never really popular or profitable. And now, one is gone, and the other is smaller.
The demolition work done recently is part of a new grand scheme by new owners of the Kauai Lagoons, Kauai Development LLC and GolfBC. The site is adjacent to the former Kauai Surf, the former Westin Kauai (as redeveloped by Hemmeter and others), now the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort & Beach Club, on Kalapaki Beach.
At the former Fashion Landing complex near Whalers Brewpub, the buildings that remain are getting re-roofed in clay tile by workers from Beachside Roofing, said Kevin Showe, manager of Kauai Development LLC.
Once the re-roofing is accomplished, rotting wooden siding will be replaced with stucco siding. Near Whalers Brewpub, an existing building will become a day and destination spa, Showe explained.
It’s all part of “a very comprehensive redevelopment of the whole resort,” that will also include 700 total units of timeshare, condominium and single-family homes, he said.
The master Special Management Area (SMA) plan should be submitted to county Planning Department officials within 30 days, he explained.
That master plan does not include a resort hotel along the coast in the area above the bodysurfing break known as “Running Waters.” In 2002, leaders of former owner Shinwa Golf Group had approved by county officials a re-zoning that included abandonment of the resort zoning along the shoreline, Showe said.
After Shinwa leaders ran into financial difficulties, Kauai Lagoons was purchased by officials at Alexander & Baldwin, who in turn sold their interest to GolfBC, a Canadian development firm from Vancouver, British Columbia. Kauai Development LLC leaders partnered up with GolfBC in July, Showe said.
Showe and other Kauai Development LLC officials are the Hawai‘i members of the partnership, and are the local managers operating Kauai Lagoons’ day-to-day operations during the “turnaround,” he said.
Regarding the residential and resort development, Showe reported that an on-site sewage treatment plant has plenty capacity to handle the new development, and that a water study is under way to evaluate potable-water needs. Civil engineers are doing lots of other studies, too, he said.
Turning to the lagoons, which Showe said have suffered from a decade of neglect at the hands of previous owners, he said the new owners are installing a new aeration grid, and using “beneficial microorganisms” to treat the water and eat the layers of sludge built up at the bottom of the waterways.
A byproduct of the microorganisms’ work is hydrogen sulfate, which has acted to kill off some of the large populations of tilapia, grass carp and other fish, some of them “huge, monster fish,” he said. Getting rid of some of the tilapia, carp and other fish was necessary because of fish-overpopulation problems plaguing the lagoons, he said.
The more environmentally friendly way of cleaning up the ponds is in contrast to those utilized by previous owners, who used the toxic chemical copper sulfate to keep the lagoons clean, Showe said. The new owners are working with state Department of Health officials on plans for cleaning up the lagoons, and keeping them clean, Showe concluded.
Paul C. Curtis, associate editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
