The National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai reached a $280,000 goal on Wednesday through the Blue Planet Foundation’s WEfficiency online lending program.
The nonprofit will use the funds to retrofit its climate control system in the LEED-Gold certified botanical research center on Kauai.

“This was the largest successful crowdsourcing funding project in Hawaii to date,” NTBG President, CEO and Chairman Chipper Wichman told Pacific Business News. "Our business model is purely based on philanthropy, so being able to partner with Blue Planet and the ‘loan-ation’ project allowed us to engage with those who would not normally be part of our donor base, which was really exciting.”

The new system is expected to save the botanical garden $60,000 annually in energy costs, while preventing 131 tons of carbon dioxide pollution.

Reside Kauai is proud to sponsor the 35th annual Haena to Hanalei run is on Saturday, June 6. The eight-mile race put on by the Hanalei Canoe Club begins at Ke’e Beach and finishes at Black Pot Beach. There will be free shuttles leaving from the Hanalei Pier from 4:45 a.m. to 5:45 a.m. The race begins at 7 a.m.

The scenic North Shore course includes some tough climbs in the first four and a half miles before runners can enjoy a nice downhill stretch before the final few flat miles.

The run will be followed by an awards ceremony and a pancake breakfast. There is a 5K run at 7 a.m. that starts and finishes at Black Pot Beach. There will also be a one-mile youth run.

About 700 runners took part in last year’s race, which is one of the island’s longest-running sporting events.The forecast is for mostly sunny skies with scattered showers.

The cost is $35 preregistered, $45 day of race, which includes breakfast. The youth race is $10. Online registration closes Thursday. Additional breakfast tickets can be purchased for non-running friends/family for $7.

If plans for a proposed subdivision behind the middle school on Olohena Road move forward, it could involve building a new connection to the Kapaa Bypass. Other infrastructure changes could be needed, too, to accommodate the increased traffic that the 769-unit HoKua Place project could bring with it. “The thing that is hugely problematic in Kapaa is traffic,” project principal Greg Allen said. “We know that we need to put in the roads before we put in houses.”

The proposed HoKua Place plans call for a new road that would flow from the bypass, through the proposed subdivision, and then connect to Olohena Road inland from the middle school. Adding a connection to that part of the bypass could add to traffic backups at the south end, where it meets Kuhio Highway, but Allen noted the Department of Transportation is already planning to expand Kuhio Highway to four lanes in that area.

The additional fourth lane on Kuhio Highway would run south from the bypass to Kuamoo Road, making it easier for cars leaving the bypass to merge with the highway. That project is slated for summer 2016. “We have a 25 percent shortage of housing in Kauai right now. It’s expensive because they aren’t enough houses,” Allen said. “But if we have more houses, if we have more townhouses, that gives options.”

Source: The Garden Isle

Hawaii-based Genki Sushi USA, Inc. will bring its automated double-rail ordering system to its store at Kukui Grove Center on Kauai by the end of this year now that the company's newly renovated Kaneohe restaurant has reopened.

Genki Sushi USA, Inc. chief administrative officer Mary Hansen confirmed the company's decision to Pacific Business News on Friday, making Kukui Grove Center the first Neighbor Island location — and only the fourth in the state — to receive the computerized system that allows diners to order food from their seats and have it delivered to their table.

A date for when the Lihue restaurant will close for renovations, however, had not been determined yet.

Demolition of Kauai’s long-shuttered Coco Palms Resort is scheduled to begin in the next 30 or 60 days, clearing the way for the redevelopment of the iconic property into a Hyatt-branded hotel.

The iconic resort, which was approved by the Kauai Planning Commission, will reopen as a Hyatt-branded property in the spring of 2017, according to Chad Waters, a managing partner with Coco Palms Hui LLC, the developer of the project.

The resort, which was made famous when it was featured in the Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawaii,” suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Iniki in 1992 and never reopened. Coco Palms Hui has plans to rebuild the resort with about 350 rooms, with rates reflecting the average daily rate on Kauai — about $225. Hawaii Chef Jean-Marie Josselin will run the Coco Palms Seashell Restaurant.

It’s estimated that the redevelopment of the resort will cost more than $100 million. The redevelopment team includes Agor Architecture, Philpotts & Associates and McKelvey Associates. A construction firm has yet to be chosen.

Global seed company Dupont Pioneer is closing one of its Hawaii facilities on Kauai and laying off 34 employees to streamline operations amid a softening market, officials said Thursday.

The closure of the 3,000-acre parent seed operations facility in Kekaha, where the initial seeds used to create hybrids are grown, began Wednesday, when 23 employees were laid off. Another 11 more, company officials said, will be laid off once the closure is complete within the next few months.

All operations conducted in Kekaha, she said, will be consolidated with another DuPont Pioneer facility in Waialua on Oahu's North Shore.

Oakley founder James Jannard has purchased four adjacent beachfront properties on Kauai’s North Shore for a total of $43.5 million, according to public records.

The sale of the Hanalei properties, which total about 2.3 acres of land and 15 bedrooms and 13.5 bathrooms, closed on March 15 to Jannard’s Kauains LLC.

The purchases by Jannard is just one of many recent purchases/listings by celebrities and other high net-worth individuals on the North Shore such as Mark Zuckerberg, Chuck Norris & Julia Roberts.

Photo courtesy of: Pacific Business News via Susan Tai Kaneko

County of Kauai officials say they are ending a nearly six-month pilot project that provided a subsidized shuttle service between Princeville and Ke'e on the North Shore.

A 4-2 vote by the Kauai County Council last week resulted in the decision to eliminate a $180,000 subsidy for the program, which received a $200,000 grant through the county's Office of Economic Development when it kicked off in November.

County officials said the goal of the six-and-a-half-month program, run by Princeville-based Experience Kauai Tours & Transportation, was to help reduce traffic along Kuhio Highway on the North Shore and provide an alternative transportation option for residents and visitors. Over the past six months, there were 9,220 rides on the shuttle, with residents comprising roughly 45 percent and visitors 55 percent of the ridership.

"We learned a lot from the North Shore Shuttle pilot, and are looking at what our options are now," Kauai Mayor Carvalho, wrote in an e-mail to Pacific Business News. "In the meantime, the county has hired a consultant to conduct a transit/shuttle feasibility study on the north, south and east shores. We are looking at all options to alleviate traffic congestion in these areas."

 CEO Mark Zuckerberg who recently bought a 737-acre oceanfront estate in Hawaii on Kauai’s North Shore, apparently doesn't have big plans for the property, according to a Kauai County executive. He wants to build his own home and a guest house on the hundreds of acres he acquired on the Garden Isle, Steve Hunt, tax manager for the county, according to Pacific Business News.

Zuckerberg, the world’s 16th richest person with a net worth of $34.7 billion, according to Forbes, paid $135.5 million alone for the hundreds of acres of the beachfront estate called the “Kahuaina Plantation.”