Museum shelves plans
for Kakaako center

The time to clean up industrial
property was too long, it says

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Bishop Museum plans to build a $24 million learning center on its own property off Likelike Highway in Kalihi, giving up on its proposal to build the complex in Kakaako.

The museum also expects to build a $10 million IMAX movie theater in a second phase of improvements to its 17-acre property.

The Kakaako project, backed by Gov. Ben Cayetano, became unfeasible when it was found that it would take too long to clean up the industrial property to comply with environmental requirements, said a museum spokeswoman.

The new plan calls for a 48,000-square-foot building as the first phase.

Meanwhile, the museum is campaigning for donations, since its funds are running low. The museum's president, William Brown, wants to spread the word that the Bishop Museum is not the Bishop Estate (Kamehameha Schools), a name which people associate with big money.

Charles Reed Bishop founded the museum 15 years after the death of his wife, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, whose legacy of lands was the basis for the Kamehameha Schools.

Charles Bishop's estate was bigger than Bernice's but was left to a number of causes and the museum was only one of many beneficiaries.

There is no timetable for the new project. Brown has said he would like to see ground broken this year.