Historic Honolulu post office
renamed for King Kalakaua

Cayetano defends the state's plans
to buy the fixed-up building

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By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press

Dedication ceremonies were held yesterday to rename the historic post office and federal building in downtown Honolulu after King Kalakaua.

The renaming is part of the state's deal for the renovation of the 80-year-old building at Richards and Merchant streets that once was headquarters for most federal agencies in the islands, including the U.S. District Court.

Gov. Ben Cayetano said the arrangement will add to the Capitol District and provide the state with needed office space.

It was announced last week that Par Development LLC, an affiliate of Denver-based RSD Corp., would buy the building for $7 million, restore it, bring the interior up to modern standards and then sell 120,000 square feet of the 160,000-square-foot property to the state for $32.5 million.

The postal service will buy back the rest of the improved space for $1.

Cayetano defended the state's cost in the deal.

"It's like the Hemmeter Building. People grumbled because we paid $22 million when we bought it from the Japanese who paid $80 million," Cayetano said. "This building is priceless."

He said the King Kalakaua Building joins the Hemmeter Building, recently opened as the state's art center, the new governor's residence and plans to transform Washington Place into a museum as projects his administration has accomplished to improve the civic center.

The state plans to relocate the Department of Commerce & Consumer Affairs, now located diagonally across in the Kamamalu Building on Richards Street, into the renovated King Kalakaua Building, while the postal service will continue mail operations with one-third more space.

Restoration work was to begin yesterday and to last a year.

In 1996 the postal service agreed to sell the property to developers who planned a $54 million boutique shopping center. The government terminated the project in 2000 after financing fell through.

King Kalakaua was Hawaii's next-to-last monarch, reigning from 1874 to 1891.