King's Cathedral

Kuli‘ou‘ou / Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board #2 Meeting on 2/2/06

Steve Sofos, whose company manages the Niu Valley Shopping Center, stated that King’s Cathedral wants to be a good neighbor. But he also admitted the Church was trying to throw its weight around with the businesses in regard to parking restrictions for their employees and customers. He stated that the businesses who have left (or want to leave) just don’t want to pay the market rate for a lease. He also said KFC has a history of suing its landlords to get a better rental rate and that he has three other fast food companies ready to lease that space. And in the case of Chuck Izumoto’s Popcorn Express, Mr. Sofos said it would have been unfair to the businesses who rent space to allow him to continue to sell his kettlecorn in the parking lot even though no business at the Shopping Center sells popcorn. With Lung Fung recently renewing its lease for 10 years and 7-Eleven planning to build a convenience store and bring in a new gas operator, he said they will try different solutions to the parking problem, including possibly valet parking or redesigning and paving the back with more parking stalls. Mr. Sofos stated that he expected even more “rollover” of the Shopping Center’s current tenants because there are several now paying below market rates. He agreed to come back to the NB#2 in 2 months with an update on the Shopping Center’s plans and also declared that King’s Cathedral was only building a church service day school or “Sunday School.”

Kuli‘ou‘ou / Kalani Iki Neighborhood Board #2 Meeting on 3/4/04

The Rev. Ann Fujii, Senior Pastor of King’s Cathedral, a Maui-based church, stated that their members had recently voted to purchase the fee for the entire Niu Shopping Center and they are in negotiations with the owner, the Hawai‘i Electricians Pension Trust Fund. She claimed their organization had no intention to build a school at the old Times Supermarket site, however, their future plans may include a school. When the sanctuary is finished, they will hold 3 services: at 11 am and 6 pm on Sundays and 7:30 pm on Tuesdays, as well as offer nursery, bible and music lessons. They have approximately 200 members on O‘ahu. Pastor Fujii stated that they had looked throughout East Honolulu to Waimanalo and are happy to be in Niu Valley and pray for the community every day. She apologized to the community for taking so long to renovate but they are very careful to comply with the permit process which has taken 2 years. They had hoped to open at Easter, but it now looks like it won’t be until the end of this summer. In the meantime, they do plan to continue all the leases with the existing tenants. She also apologized for the noise recently when they held their services in the Center’s parking lot, but they were not able to use the Niu Valley Middle School cafeteria because of the recent Democratic caucus.

About 50 Niu Valley residents attended to voice their concerns:
• The site is zoned B-1 for business purposes only and, although a church may be allowed, a school definitely is not.
• There are already 3 schools in the Valley and another one would cause property values to decline. The neighborhood surrounding the existing schools already have problems now because they rent or lease out their facilities 7 days a week. This causes increased traffic and those streets have cars at all times of the day and night which impede and diminish the Neighborhood Security Watch’s efforts.
• There is still resentment felt by the residents because the landlord forced Times Supermarket out of their lease and most had hoped another grocery store would come in. Seniors especially have a hard time getting their grocery shopping done now and must have family drive them to Koko Marina or ‘Âina Haina or take the bus. Even a small grocery store or coffee shop would have been favorable to the community, and the church has jeopardized the character of the community as well as changed the comfort level of residents.
• King’s Cathedral has not given any notice or held meetings in the community, has not been open and honest about their plans and, in fact, hide their connection with the Assembly of God church which builds huge monolithic churches like the one located at Red Hill. Residents wanted assurances that they would not build a large church, retirement home, hotel, school or other misuse of the zoned purposes for that property.

Links

Read the Honolulu Advertiser 2/2/06 story
Read the Star Bulletin Swiss Haus 1/4/06 story
Read the Honolulu Star Bulletin 3/7/04 story
Read the Honolulu Advertiser 7/4/04 story
Read the Honolulu Advertiser 10/9/04 story
Read the Honolulu Advertiser 3/17/05 KFC story
Read the Honolulu Advertiser 12/15/05 7-Eleven story