Kmart Keeaumoku project takes another step forward

The MacNaughton Group has taken another step toward a proposed development at the Keeaumoku superblock, to be anchored by bankrupt retailer Kmart Corp., by discussing details of the project at a public hearing yesterday.

The one-story Kmart store would contain 186,000 square feet of retail space, while the entire project would include Starbucks and Jamba Juice shops and some 700 parking stalls, according to MacNaughton. The massive store, designed by MC Architects Inc., would appear as three connected buildings surrounded by shrubbery and trees.

Details of the $50 million development were originally released when MacNaughton announced the project in September. MacNaughton's appearance at the hearing indicates that the project is still on track, despite the fact that Kmart entered Chapter 11 reorganization last month. Kmart representatives have said that the Keeaumoku project is under review along with all other openings of stores. Kmart is expected to make a firm decision as early as next month.

First Hawaiian backpedals, retains Eaton Square site

First Hawaiian Bank said today it will not close its Eaton Square branch after all. The bank said earlier this week that it intended to close the branch on the edge of Waikiki April 26 because it has two other branches within three-quarters of a mile, but promised to listen to customers before making the decision final. Customers let the bank know they want it to stay open and it will, First Hawaiian said.

Vice President Sandefur to retire from AT&T

Kenneth H. Sandefur, who brought AT&T to Hawaii at the beginning of a surge in telecommunications competition in the mid-1980s, will retire June 30 as AT&T vice president for Hawaii. His replacement will be named later, AT&T said.

Under Sandefur's direction, AT&T became a major force in Hawaii, becoming a leader in long-distance service and growing from a handful of employees to more than 600 statewide.

He opened AT&T's offices in Hawaii in 1985. Since then, the company has established a high-tech switching center at its One Waterfront Plaza headquarters, played a lead role in developing fiber-optic telecommunications cable connections between Hawaii and the mainland, added a satellite earth station at Pearl City and two cable stations, acquired Honolulu Cellular and maintained a multi-million-dollar contract to run all telecommunications services on military bases in Hawaii.

NASA 'eye in the sky' monitoring Kauai coffee

A coffee farm on Kauai has implemented space-age NASA technology to aid its coffee harvest.

Since October, a high-altitude remotely piloted solar-powered unmanned airborne vehicle, or UAV for short, has been hovering above the Kauai Coffee Co., Hawaii's largest coffee grower with 3,400 acres under cultivation, taking images of the crop.

The Kauai farm has about 4 million coffee trees that stand about 12 feet high, so seeing into the interior of the orchards is difficult, said Frank Kiger, general manager of Kauai Coffee Co.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration funded a $3.76 million grant to Clark University professor Stanley Herwitz to lead the research mission and use the Pathfinder-Plus aircraft built by AeroVironment Inc. of Monrovia, Calif.

As Kiger explained, "The real world benefit now is to be able to see areas with gaps in the orchards where trees have died, where there is weed infestation, or where the water and fertilizer are not getting."