La Mariana Sailing Club started what could be its next 20 years in business at Keehi Lagoon Wednesday after avoiding a scheduled termination of its state land lease.

The popular restaurant, tiki bar and sailboat slip operator last week convinced the state Board of Land and Natural Resources to extend the company’s original 35-year lease for a second time.

In February, a Department of Land and Natural Resources staff report recommended giving La Mariana one additional year as a “holdover” tenant because a previous five-year extension granted in 2013 and effective in 2014 was deemed the maximum allowed under state law.

However, La Mariana made a case that the law allows DLNR to extend a lease so that a lessee can recoup expenses for substantially improving a property as long as the entire term of the lease doesn’t exceed 65 years.

Jason Tani, an attorney with local law firm Rush Moore LLP representing La Mariana, cited a statute for this in a March 25 letter to DLNR official Richard Howard.

La Mariana had spent $427,579 to repair damage to docks and other facilities caused by a 2011 tsunami. The company had cited the expenses, verified by DLNR, as a reason for wanting a 10-year lease extension in 2013, but at that time was told by DLNR that a five-year extension was the maximum allowed, according to Tani’s letter.

La Mariana said in February that as of January it it still owed $377,624 on a loan obtained to make the repairs.

DLNR recommended only a one-year holdover beyond the lease’s scheduled April 30 expiration, and aimed to offer a new lease at a public auction to the highest bidder next year.

“Given that the lessee was forced to expend a large sum of money (which has not been repaid to this date) due to an act of God, staff believes that a one-year holdover is the most equitable solution,” the staff report said.

La Mariana objected, and a decision was deferred at a February board meeting.

At one point since then, DLNR was considering a seven-year extension. But La Mariana sought 20, and pointed out that it could have asked for up to 25.

“La Mariana is still amortizing its costs from the damage caused by the 2011 tsunami, and at a significant cost given the short amortization period and large amount of the loan,” Tani said in the March letter.

DLNR’s board last week voted 7-0 to approve the 20-year extension, which brings the total term of the lease to 60 years.

As part of the new extension, La Mariana has committed to make additional improvements to the property — an estimated $467,750 in work to repair its three main docks, one of which it said was seriously damaged by a storm in early February.

Also, La Mariana will pay a new fair market value rent to be calculated using a DLNR appraisal and applied retroactively to Wednesday. Previously, La Mariana was paying $75,600 a year to lease the property, which includes land under the restaurant, parking lot, a clubhouse, a gift shop, an apartment and about 120 boat slips. There may be a discrepancy as to the area being used for boat slips, but that will be surveyed and adjusted if necessary, according to Ed Underwood, administrator of DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.

If the future of La Mariana plays out as envisioned for another 20 years, it will have been a fixture in the area for nearly 85 years.

Annette Nahinu founded La Mariana in 1955 with her husband at the time on a site about 50 yards from where the business is today. The present site, a former junkyard, was turned into what La Mariana describes as a “lush hideaway” and “one of-a-kind oasis” in the middle of the industrial area.

Nahinu died in 2008 at age 93, and since then the business has been run by longtime employee Judith Calma for a trust created by Nahinu.