By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
This old stone pump station on Ala Moana Boulevard
in Kakaako--long neglected--is finally slated for
renovation and rejuvenation.

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Restaurant, microbrewery
to replace pump station

The historic Ala Moana building
will be renovated and include
an open market

By Jerry Tune
Star-Bulletin

The state has picked developer Richard Weiser to build a restaurant/microbrewery and an open-air market at the former Ala Moana pumping station.

The pump station, a historic building at Ala Moana and Keawe Street, will be renovated and A Pacific Cafe, owned by chef Jean-Marie Josselin, will be the tenant for the 8,000-square-foot restaurant.

The restaurant will feature a cuisine similar to what Josselin offers at his Ward Centre restaurant, and on Maui and Kauai.

Weiser has said the Ward Centre restaurant will remain open despite being a few blocks from the pump station site.

The Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency that regulates Kakaako development, yesterday approved a four-month negotiation period to complete the lease arrangements. The developer must have financing and construction contracts in place during this time.

D.F. Antonelli Jr., a developer of hotels, housing, retail and office projects primarily in Washington D.C. and the East Coast, will be a partner in the project, providing the equity funding needed to get lender financing.

Weiser, who develops on the East Coast and Hawaii, was chosen over two other proposals. They were a surfing museum, office, restaurant and retail complex, proposed by Construction Management & Development Inc., and a Hawaii fishing museum, by Amtsberg & Amtsberg Inc.

The authority said it chose the Weiser proposal because of the design approach with its open-air market, the track record of the developers, and what it described as the "attractive ground lease" proposal. Weiser said this includes a percentage of sales from the open market. The state lease would be for 40 years. The HCDA said final arrangements would be worked out in the next few months.

Construction for the $2 million project is expected to start in April and be completed in October 1998.

The restaurant will be surrounded by an open-air marketplace with produce and plants, a microbrewery, bakery, deli, and wine cellar. The project also includes parking for about 50 vehicles.

Charles Pankow Builders Ltd. is the design-builder working with CJS Group Architects Ltd.

The pumping station is a blue-stone structure with an 80-foot-high tower. The station was built in 1900 as the city's first waste disposal facility. It was replaced in 1955 by a new sewage facility nearby.

The facility received a historic designation in 1978.