A dilemma is brewing over the former Royal Brewery building in Honolulu.
The historic brick structure on Queen Street owned by the state has been vacant for 14 years because flooring installed during a 1996 renovation is emitting noxious fumes. But should the state spend $5 million to fix the problem and make the property inhabitable?
The Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency that owns the property, proposes to do the work and then move its offices into the building. But the agency’s board isn’t sure the expense is worth it.
“It’s not an inexpensive move,” said Anthony Ching, the agency’s executive director. “It’s a very agonizing decision.”
HCDA’s board balked at giving approval earlier this month to go ahead with remediation work on the five-story structure also known as the American Brewery building or the Honolulu Brewing and Malting Co. building.
The board indicated at its Feb. 6 meeting that it needed more information to make a decision.
Ching told the board that the agency would be able to stop renting office space in a converted warehouse several blocks away in Kakaako. The agency pays about $180,000 a year for the space.
The brewery building, which is listed on state and federal historic registers, was built in 1900 and for much of its life produced beer including Primo and Royal brands. Brewery operations ceased in 1960, according to the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.
In the early 1990s, American Brewing Co. Ltd. sold the building, which had been vacant for more than 30 years, and an adjoining lot to HCDA so the agency could develop a complex of rental apartments for seniors and affordable condominium studios on the lot pressing up against the brewery building.
The agency reported capitalized construction costs of $3.4 million to renovate the historic building, and provided three floors for a community center for seniors that Catholic Charities Elderly Services opened in 1996.
But complaints of mysterious fumes that some people said caused dizziness, headaches, nausea and burning eyes led the nonprofit to shut the center in 1998. The fumes, Ching said, are still present.
A series of studies and remediation efforts by the state determined that the fumes were from a termite treatment used on beams and flooring installed as part of the renovation. The state sued contractors and materials suppliers over the alleged defects in 2004, aiming to recover expenses including the future cost to remedy the problem.
But after eight years of costly and complicated construction litigation, the state settled the case for about
$1 million in late 2011.
HCDA recently obtained competitive bids to replace the flooring, and the low bid was about $4.9 million. The agency seeks approval to spend up to $6.1 million, which includes a 25 percent contingency expense to cover any unexpected problems.
The agency proposes using the top three floors in a remediated brewery building for staff office space. The second floor would be used for public meetings. The ground floor would be available for community space.
Ching said the agency would get roughly the same amount of usable office space as it presently leases. The end of that lease in December 2014 would allow for a timely move after a projected 16-month construction period.
But some board members said they felt they didn’t have enough information to OK spending up to $6.1 million for the move. The board asked for a tour of the brewery building and more details before taking up the issue next month.
Ching acknowledged that the decision isn’t easy. “We have a very hard choice,” he said. “This is something we would have preferred be done right the first time. Do we let (the building) go vacant for another 15 years?”
Brewery Building
