WAILUKU >> Alexander & Baldwin Inc. plans to expand its light industrial area in Kahului by about 177 acres in the next 20 years. A&B bid for industrial
land clears first stepBy Gary Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com
The Maui County Council recently approved a light industrial designation for 220 acres of A&B land in a community plan.
A 143-acre parcel owned by the firm mauka of Dairy Road is adjacent to large business entities, such as Home Depot, WalMart and the Maui Marketplace.
A 77-acre triangular section south of Costco was formerly designated business/industrial.
The firm still needs to obtain a state Land Use Commission reclassification for most of the land and a change in zoning for all of it from the County Council.
A&B officials said out of the 220 acres, only about 177 acres are usable for new tenants because a large portion has been set aside as a flood retention basin and some lands have already been developed.
A&B Properties chief executive officer Stanley Kuriyama said the firm took about 10 years to complete the development of 76 acres of light industrial mauka of Dairy Road and expects it will take 10 to 20 years to develop the additional lands.
Council members chose to support the light industrial designations despite opposition from the Maui chapter of the Sierra Club.
Several residents said the land should be developed to be visually appealing because of their location near the airport, where visitors enter Maui.
Councilman Alan Arakawa said a citizens advisory committee living in the Kahului and Wailuku region supported the light industrial designation because the lands were away from homes and near the harbor and airport.