Chemical to keep A historic Kakaako building -- plagued with odors after the state spent $2.6 million to renovate it -- remains nearly vacant five years later.
out termites has
kept humans
out instead
The architect spent $100,000
to rid the Royal Brewery of
the odor, but an ex-tenant
says it is still thereBy Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.comThe odor that forced the original tenant to leave is still there despite a $100,000 cleanup.
Commercial cleaners scrubbed the Royal Brewery Building with soap and water late last year.
Jan Yokota, executive director of the state agency that oversaw the renovation, says the odor is "pretty much taken care of." But the building's original tenant disagrees.
Catholic Charities Elderly Services says it is not convinced the building is safe, and will not be moving back.
Another group, meanwhile, has occupied the third floor since April, and its executive director says the "staff seems to be doing fine."
Since 1997, various measures have been taken to get rid of the smell: installing blowers, removing flooring materials and windows on the top three floors, and trying to mask the smell with apricot-smelling oils.
"We spent a lot of time trying to address the odor problem, and at this point we do feel most of the odor problem has gone away," said Yokota of the Hawaii Community Development Authority. "Now we look again at renting the space. It was different when there was an odor issue."
But Catholic Charities, which ran the Kakaako Senior and Community Center on the first three floors of the five-story building, says the state could not guarantee that it would be safe to go back in.
The nonprofit group ended its $1-a-month lease three years ago after the smell caused nausea, headaches and dizziness for some of its 100 members.
"The state has asked us to come back into the building (after the cleanup), but when we did a preliminary walk-through, we could still smell it," said Stella Wong, executive director of Catholic Charities.
The odor was caused by a chemical designed to protect wood from termites and is described as smelling like new paint. The odor forced Catholic Charities to temporarily vacate the space five months after moving in. It resumed activities two months later but was restricted to the first floor until it left the site in August 1998.
"We could not guarantee the safety of my staff and seniors coming to the building, so we chose not to go back," she said.
The state did not pay for the work to remove the smell.
"The architect volunteered to try to remove the problem, although they were not at fault," Yokota said.
The entire process cost a little more than $100,000, said Chris Smith of CJS Group Architects Ltd.The century-old building on Queen Street was renovated in 1996 as part of a $28 million proj-ect to redevelop Kakaako. The renovation was done in concert with building an adjacent complex of 90 condominiums and 151 elderly units, putting the senior center within walking distance of three senior housing projects.
"It was (renovated) especially for a community senior center," said Wong of Catholic Charities. "That's why the first floor is not carpeted, so it's easy to do exercise and dance. ... We helped design it, actually."
Catholic Charities has not found another home to replace the center, so most of the 100 clients have dispersed to three community centers in Kalihi, Waikiki and Makiki, Wong said.
Pearl De Lima, who uses a walker, is not one of them. It is too inconvenient to go to those other sites when the center is steps away from her building, she said.
"I loved (the center). We all used to gather here, that's why," said De Lima, an 81-year-old resident of the adjacent complex, Honuakaha. "Even our friends from other places would come."
Yokota said the building was never intended to make money, but rather to provide a low-cost home to service-oriented groups.
"Our main concern is to have people use the facility," she said. "Now that the odor problem has pretty much been addressed and taken care of, we can focus on getting nonprofit and community-oriented groups to occupy the building."
Volunteer Legal Services Hawaii has been leasing the third floor on a month-to-month basis since April 1.
There have been no complaints from the 15 staff who work in the building, said Executive Director Judy Sobin, who does not work there.
"There's definitely an odor," she said. "Still, it's more apparent on the first floor for some reason, and we're occupying the third."
Legal Services paid its cleaning service to do a "thorough cleaning before we moved in," she said, adding that it is likely the group will continue its lease for the long term.
"We're monitoring things as they go along," she said. "We're the canaries, so we'll see, but so far, so good."