Homeowners, elected officials and project partners gathered on Oct. 2 to break ground on the rebuild of Lahaina Residential, a 60-unit community at 1034 Front Street where every home was destroyed in the August 2023 wildfire. Construction on the six two-story buildings is scheduled to begin on Oct. 19 and is expected to take about 18 months, restoring each structure to its original size and layout.
According to Maui Now, Mayor Richard Bissen and Council Member Yuki Lei Sugimura joined homeowners and project partners at the groundbreaking, where Kahu Alalani Hill led a blessing. Bissen said housing is the foundation of Lahaina’s recovery. The property sits within the Lahaina Historic District and is adjacent to the U.S. Marine Hospital, also known as Seaman’s Hospital, as reported by The Maui News.
A Homeowner’s Long Wait Nears Its End
Thomas Ravey, a Lahaina Residential homeowner for 30 years and president of the community’s association of apartment owners, said homeowners can finally see their homes starting to come back, per Maui Now’s account of the groundbreaking. Arita Poulson General Contracting, which started on Maui more than 40 years ago, is serving as the project’s general contractor and will oversee all aspects of rebuilding the community, delivering all 60 homes.
Shannon Robinson, controller at Arita Poulson General Contracting, said the homes will be built by local workers, the Maui Now report notes. The firm is part of the Goodfellow Brothers family of companies, which helped rehabilitate Lahaina’s banyan tree during the August 2023 emergency response, assisted with debris removal to prepare for rebuilding, and supported both temporary housing development and the temporary King Kamehameha III Elementary School campus.
Fire-Hardened Design Meets Historic Preservation
The rebuild folds in a suite of fire-resilience upgrades, including fire-resistant siding and roofing along with defensible space and fire-safe landscaping, according to Hawaii News Now. Native plants that reduce water use, low-flow plumbing fixtures and infrastructure for future electric-vehicle chargers are also part of the plan. The project team collaborated with County of Maui historic representatives, who worked on exterior materials and design elements meant to complement the hospital and the historic Front Street view corridor.
The broader design and engineering team includes Michael Wright & Associates Inc., Kasprzycki Designs, Martin & Martin, and Island Geotechnical and Scientific Consultant Services Inc. Arita Poulson will restore the six two-story buildings to their original size and layout, the same report states.
Where Lahaina’s Recovery Stands
The Aug. 8, 2023 fire burned 2,170 acres and killed at least 102 people, destroying more than 2,700 structures according to a New York Times account, while Civil Beat has reported more than 2,200 structures destroyed and more than $5.5 billion in damage, with nearly 13,000 people displaced. Civil Beat also reported that as recovery has unfolded, nearly 600 homes had been rebuilt three years after the fires and another 315 were under construction, with the county issuing or processing permits for roughly 1,000 more units. The pace of rebuilding quickened over the past year, per that report, even as none of the businesses destroyed in Lahaina’s commercial district had been rebuilt.
Mayor Bissen has said roughly 58% of properties cleared by the Army Corps of Engineers have either finished rebuilding, been granted permits to begin construction, or submitted a rebuilding permit application, the same Civil Beat report notes. County officials have said their approach prioritized owner-occupied residential housing before commercial rebuilding, according to Maui Now’s earlier reporting. The Times has also reported that less than a year after the fire, 11,637 Hawaii residents were homeless, an 87% increase from before the disaster, as the number living in emergency shelters or transitional housing tripled.
For the families tied to Lahaina Residential, the groundbreaking marks a tangible turn after years of displacement. With crews set to begin work later this month, the community’s six buildings are slated to rise again on the same Front Street footprint where they stood before the fire.
