Fire department complex The city is moving ahead with its plans for a Honolulu Fire Department headquarters and museum complex in Kakaako, one of the reasons the gasoline station at the corner of South and Queen streets was closed last weekend.
planned in Kakaako
By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comBen Lee, city managing director, said the city is in negotiations with Chevron Hawaii, owner of the 20,400-square-foot site where K&Y Service owner Frank Young did battle for years over his lease terms with Chevron.
It makes sense for the city to buy the property, which fronts on Queen and South but is bounded on the other two sides by fire department property, Lee said.
It is being appraised and no agreement has been reached, he said.
There is money from last year's city budget to spend some $15 million to build the new complex, which would include the 151-year-old Kakaako fire station and a new headquarters building of seven or eight stories behind it.
The new Kakaako station on Queen Street would be part of the complex and a museum would be built to go along with the old fire station, which is on both state and federal historic building registers, Lee said.
Final design and timing have yet to be decided, he said, but the city hopes to put the whole project out for a design-and-build contract by way of a request for proposals, he said.
"Consultants have done some preliminary design drawings," Lee said. There is no place right now that is suitable for the fire department to display memorabilia gathered over a century and a half, he said.
Chevron's corner location is important to the project and the whole entry and exit pattern depends on whether the city can acquire it, he said.
Meanwhile, Chevron said it is indeed negotiating with the city and the plans for the fire station are part of its reason for closing the station.
But there are other reasons, said Albert Chee, a spokesman for Chevron Hawaii.
A state law enacted several years ago requires gasoline companies that take over what had been a dealer-run station to get it into the hands of another dealer within 24 months and not hang on to it as a company-run station, he said.
On top of that are uncertainties faced by the state cap on gasoline prices, which takes effect in 2004. Market conditions show changes are needed at the Kakaako gas station, but the investment needed to make those changes can't be justified under current conditions, Chee said.
Frank Young's family operated K&Y from the 1950s until he moved out in January as part of legal settlement that turned the station over to Chevron.