Historic Hawai‘i Foundation
680 Iwilei Road, Suite #690, Honolulu, HI 96817
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Copyright 2003-2009 Historic Hawaii Foundation unless otherwise noted
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Photo by Rae Huo
HISTORIC HAWAI‘I FOUNDATION
What is it?
The Honolulu Advertiser, Hawai‘i’s oldest continuously published newspaper until this year, when it merged with The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, moved to 605 Kapi‘olani Blvd. in 1930. Architects Walter Emory and Marshall Webb designed the three-story, Beaux Arts-style building, which was home to the newspaper’s news, advertising and administrative offices. On both the National and State Registers of Historic Places, the building’s design includes such striking details as a Spanish-tile hipped roof, large, divided-light awning windows, twin roof towers and terra cotta detailing.
What threatens it?
In 2005, The Advertiser’s owner, Gannett Pacific Corp., put the aging building up for sale. Then-publisher Mike Fisch was quoted in a March 2005 Pacific Business News article as saying that the company was “exploring options for redevelopment” of the nearly 78,400-square-foot building and adjoining 2 acres.
A buyer, however, did not materialize until this year. In September, Joseph Haas, the senior managing director at CB Richard Ellis, which had the property listing, confirmed that the property was under contract, but would not disclose any information until it was a done deal. As of press time, details had still not been made available.
With the impending sale, there is concern that the new buyer might not have the building’s best interests at heart. “The threat is the unknown nature and parameters of any adaptive reuse and/ or adjacent construction,” says HHF’s Faulkner. “Such an important building and part of Honolulu’s history should have more than the assurances of the real estate agent to rely on.”
The assurances to which Faulkner refers came from Haas, who could not confirm the buyer’s intended plans for the site, but insisted that there was no need to worry. “Everyone we’ve spoken to that I’m aware of has plans to keep the building,” says Haas. “It’s a nice building, it functions, and it works. I’m not personally involved [in the transaction], but I would venture to say that the people who buy that property will probably put a development on it, or more than one development. The Advertiser building will most likely be left alone and leased, probably to office users.”
What can be done?
The building’s historic status restricts the type of alterations that can be made to its interior or exterior. However, as Haas mentioned, it’s likely that the new owner will develop the acreage around the building, which could impact the integrity of the building’s location, setting and feeling. For her part, Faulkner would like to see the new owner complete “a sensitive rehabilitation of the main building and compatible new construction on the rest of the site.”
The Honolulu Advertiser Building
(Honolulu, O‘ahu)
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by Jenny Quill , Honolulu Magazine
