The project was started because the Maui Medical Clinic at Pu’unene Ave. is on land leased from A&B and the lease expires in November 2008. Dr. James Hansen and pharmacist Les Krenk approached Ben Brown, a retired Maui resident, for assistance in obtaining space for their existing practices. Brown had never been a developer, but he had money to invest and a desire to help promote quality medical services on Maui.
At the start in April 2006, all of the current Maui Clinic tenants met with Brown, Krenk, and Dr. Hansen and expressed support for obtaining land and building a new facility. During the initial meeting, the need for a minimum of 60,000 sq. ft. of office space was established. Additionally, medical practitioners from outside the Maui Clinic expressed a desire to join in the undertaking.
Brown asked Bob McDaniel, a Maui real estate broker, to assist in finding a suitable location. The tenants wanted to remain in central Maui where the bulk of their patients resided. The Maui Clinic Medical Center has been a fixture in central Maui and has become part of the local culture serving several generations. The tenants wanted to be close but not adjacent to Maui Memorial Hospital. The search area included all of Kahului and Wailuku. Only two privately owned lots were available and one of those was taken off the market during purchase negotiations.
In August 2006, Mr. Brown purchased two and a half acres of M-2 zoned land in an industrial subdivision on Hana Highway west of Kanaha Pond and proximate to Maui Oil, The Gas Company, and Kitagawa Auto Wrecking. The land has been filled from the creation of the drainage canals that define its West, North, and East borders. It has 600’ of Hana Highway for a southern border. The drainage canals are owned privately but managed and maintained by A&B. Over the years, the land had become a dumping ground and homeless camp. Historical records show that no structures had ever been on the land.
Mr. Brown then hired local civil, structural, electrical, environmental, and mechanical engineers, contracted for archeological and cultural studies and a soil survey of the site. The Hawaii-licensed architect, Harrison Fagg, is a life-long acquaintance of Mr. Brown. He headed up the design team and all consultants advised that he land had the proper zoning and land-use designations as well as satisfying the location constraints of the doctors and medical professionals at the Maui Clinic. Maui County officials, including the Planning Director at the time Mike Foley, were consulted. After thorough consideration it was decided to build a 100,000 sq. ft. modern facility at the site.
For more than two years, the tenants and developer and design team has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to obtain permitting. The USACE has determined the property to contain a low or zero value resource near a wetland, not adjacent, and has asked for mitigation of the impact that this building will have on the land. A preeminent wetland consulting firm, The Teal Partners, has put together a plan to satisfy the Corps and other regulatory agencies and the new Maui Clinic development team have agreed to provide any and all required mitigation.
USACE officials who reviewed the plans and made the jurisdictional determination have not been forthcoming and it appears that it could take years to obtain permission to proceed. The Maui Medical Plaza team believes there is an urgent need to proceed. Some of the Doctors are considering leaving Maui if they cannot obtain space. A&B is cooperating on extending individual leases at the old Maui Clinic location which is obsolete and unsatisfactory. New physicians are waiting to move into the contemporary building. A cancer research firm has reserved space. A radiology practice has plans to expand services and purchase new equipment.
Dr. Hansen, a gastroenterologist, has predicted that Maui will lose physicians and that “people will die” if we fail to provide modern medical offices in the near future. Several new specialists have requested space in the facility and the development team has been deluged with requests for space and assurances that the building will be built.
Medical services that patients now have to travel to the mainland or to Oahu to obtain will be available in the new facility. It is in a central location on a busy highway in an area of concentrated development between Maui’s two major ports. Former Planning Director Foley told the team two years ago that Maui County preferred to have new buildings in the central, developed, Kahului/Wailuku area and not spread out creating sprawl and new traffic problems and demand. Current Planning Director Jeff Hunt and other county building and planning officials have encouraged the project. The project has the support of local officials and no opposition has been expressed by local residents. The development team envisions a contemporary new facility for the Maui Clinic and supplemental medical professionals. This facility will serve central Maui, Maui County, and all of Hawaii as a catalyst to retain and recruit physicians to our island home.
Financing is in place through investment banker, Walker Dunlop. Architectural design and engineering plans were submitted to Maui County in September 2007. Seventy percent of the space has been reserved and additional requests are being considered and negotiated. Interest and support for this new facility from physicians, patients, and Maui residents has been overwhelmingly positive. The Maui Medical Plaza at Kanaha will address the serious deficiency of quality medical office space for local healthcare professionals.