KAANAPALI, Maui >> Jessica Lorenzo rushes to take care of the lunch crowd in the dining room of Leilani’s on the Beach in Kaanapali, which in the 17 or so months since the 2023 Lahaina wildfire has started to return to normalcy.

Lorenzo started working at Leilani’s shortly after the Aug. 8, 2023, fire devastated Lahaina, killing at least 102 people and destroying thousands of properties, including Kimo’s, her employer TS Restaurants’ flagship restaurant on Front Street and her work home for seven years.

She is grateful for the job, but like TS Restaurants, looks forward to the reopening of the historic town’s commercial district and Kimo’s, where the restaurant chain started and where it invented its famous Hula Pie ice cream treat.

“Kimo’s was there for 47 years. It’s not just the tourists that look forward to it reopening, but the locals as well. A lot of the community has worked there or had kids that worked there, and it was close with Lahainaluna High School and the students and the teachers,” Lorenzo said. “TS put out an email right after the fire saying that they were pledging to rebuild Kimo’s, and that’s been like a beacon of hope.”

Leilani’s on the Beach General Manager Jason Donez said the Kaanapali eatery and TS’s other Maui restaurants, Hula Grill and Duke’s, absorbed as many Kimo’s workers as wanted to return to work, but is hopeful that someday soon Kimo’s will return to the heart of the Lahaina community.

“Kimo’s means a lot to the community who marked so many special and momentous occasions there,” Donez said. “There are people whose kids were named after Kimo’s because their parents had their first date there, and for a lot of people it was the place where they had their first slice of Hula Pie.

“We don’t have a lot of answers yet about when we can reopen, but it’s an important community pillar.”

Residential redevelopment has taken priority since the early days after the fire, and it was just in November when the first fire-affected Lahaina homeowners, the Ah Hee ohana — Mau, Ariel and their two sons Manaiakalani, 6, and 3-year-old Kaiakea — were able to move into their newly rebuilt home on Komo Mai Street.

Commercial redevelopment has not kicked into high gear; however, some recent progress has been made. Maui County said in an email that as of Jan. 8, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had cleared all but two properties of debris in the commercial district.

The county said it is now working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on multiple studies to understand the impacts of the fire and additional risks in the Front Street area. In the coming months, the county said it will be working with businesses on strategies to encourage rebuilding.

THE COUNTY said the Lahaina Long-Term Recovery Plan released in December identifies the Rebuild Lahaina Plan as a short-term project, meaning its completion goal is within one to two years, with the priority focus areas in the first six months set for Front Street and the nearby commercial area.

“The Planning Department is leading this planning process, including community engagement, and aims to make significant progress in the first six months of this year,” the county said.

“This plan provides an opportunity to restore Lahaina to meet community needs and to incorporate climate resilience and sustainability and honor the cultural and historical significance of Lahaina. It will be a comprehensive rebuild plan for Lahaina, developed and implemented in phases, so we can address the community’s most urgent needs first while also being aware of the greater town and the ripple effect of decisions and actions,” the county said.

Moreover, the county said the plan will focus on “business centers, Front Street, public lands, and how people get around the town whether on foot, in a car, on a bike, in a wheelchair, or another way. It will be completed over multiple phases and identify focus areas such as Front Street, business mixed-use, public lands and parks, harbor area, and Moku‘ula and Royal Complex.”

Maui Planning Director Kate Blystone said in an email that her department also has been working to address shoreline management area and historic concerns, and has proposed “new ways of processing applications and working with our partners in state government to streamline our processes without sacrificing thoroughness. Through the Governor’s Emergency Proclamation and adjustments to our own internal processes, we gained significant ground last year and hope to do more in 2025.

“Losing the structures that made the Lahaina historic area so special is still a shock to all of us who have worked for and with this community. It took generations to create the form and feel of Lahaina and recovering will take time, care and attention,” Blystone said. “The department is working hard to balance the need to redevelop quickly with the desire to retain the area’s character and enhancing and elevating the cultural resources that were marginalized over time.”

IN THE meantime, some commercial properties have reopened in the Lahaina Cannery Mall and Lahaina Gateway Center, and several business such as Maui Memories have relocated to other commercial districts. The county said it has been expediting permitting for businesses affected by the fire, including some businesses that are moving to other locations outside the fire impact zone.

Dany White, whose 1,600-square-foot Maui Memories store went up in flames inside the historic Pioneer Inn on Wharf Street just steps from Lahaina Harbor, found there were too few resources for business owners, many of whom were under-insured. She said most grants went to residents and nonprofits, and while low-interest Small Business Administration loans were available, not all owners qualified and some were reluctant to take on more debt after the COVID-19 pandemic.

White managed to reopen last March after making the difficult decision to take on another SBA loan while still paying for a COVID-era loan. She said taking on more debt was the only way to restock inventory after insurance covered only a third of what she lost to the fire. Finding a smaller location along Hana Highway in Paia on the island’s north shore also helped her restart her shop, which sells ukulele, clothes from local designers, artwork and jewelry.

“The good news is that I got a spot after the fires, but last year was very challenging. The store doesn’t get as much foot traffic and the sales are about a third of the business that I had in Lahaina when the banyan tree was right outside my door,” White said. “It’s going to be important to get back to Lahaina — nowhere on the island has the same amount of business. I also miss the community. It was so special.”