Niu Valley leery
of new churchResidents question a Maui-based
church over its future plans
for the shopping center
Dozens of east Oahu residents say they're concerned that a Maui-based church will install a school at Niu Valley Shopping Center once it buys the property next year.
But a senior pastor with King's Cathedral & Chapels says a school -- which would increase traffic and noise in an aging community that already has two campuses -- "is the furthest thing from our brain."
"That's the last thing on earth that we'd ever want to do," said Anne Fujii, adding that the religious organization's plans for the center aren't firm. "We don't know all that we're going to be doing there yet."
King's Cathedral, which runs three schools on Maui and has ministries on six islands, is renovating the former site of Niu Valley's Times Super Market for its Oahu congregation.
The church has leased the site from the Hawaii Electricians Pension Trust since 2002 and will buy the center next year for an undisclosed amount, Fujii said.
At a three-hour Kuliouou/ Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board meeting Thursday, Fujii faced more than 40 Niu Valley residents worried about the fate of the center and armed with a rumor that the church had plans to open a third school in their neighborhood, within walking distance of Niu Valley Intermediate and Waldorf School.
"The residents are really concerned," said board Chairman Robert Chuck, adding that he still thinks there's a "good possibility" that the church could start up a school at the site. "There are many, many people upset."
By the meeting's end -- and despite Fujii's insistence that no such plan existed -- the board had passed a motion in opposition to King's Cathedral putting a school at the center.
Gene Grounds, a Niu Valley resident since 1969, called the neighborhood "delightful" and said its residents don't take to disruption and change.
But, he said, "I would much rather have a school there (at the center) than a high-rise."
Even without the prospect of another school in Niu Valley, some residents say they're afraid King's Cathedral will eventually kick out the center's current renters.
Fujii said there are no plans to boot out tenants at the center, which include KFC, Swiss Haus Restaurant and several doctors' offices.
Some of the businesses say they're not sure what to expect once the new owners take over and the center's planned chapel is complete.
Renovations for the ministry's church should be completed by summer, Fujii said.
Niu Valley Shopping Center was built in the early 1960s. The pension trust bought the mall in 1992 and Times, its largest tenant, moved out in 2002.
"I really didn't want the church to be there," said Hair World owner Liz Tatsuguchi. "Maybe a small market, not a church."