The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority is moving forward with an estimated $15 million project that will expand the campus’s research village and create a shoreline visitor education center.
The proposed project is located just southwest of the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole and consists of the construction and operation of a new Innovation Center for NELHA as well as a separate Hale Wawaloli Visitor Center for the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park.
A final environmental assessment, which anticipates a finding of no significant impact for the project, was published Saturday, allowing the project to move forward. If all goes as planned, the goal is to open the facilities in early 2025.
The Innovation Center would be an expansion of the existing research village Hale Iako, which is at full capacity, said NELHA Executive Director Greg Barbour. The center, to be built in two phases, would include offices, conference spaces, laboratories, indoor and outdoor research spaces, and meeting areas with the ability to meet program growth for the foreseeable future.
Currently, NELHA’s research campus hosts over 20 businesses in the fields of renewable energy, ocean conservation, ocean technology, and aquaculture. The campus, which currently spreads across 6 acres and provides a “pipeline” for businesses to graduate into the adjacent HOST Park, will grow by 4 acres with the completion of the project.
“We’re turning people anyway, which is sad, because we’re so full,” said Barbour of the current situation, noting an increase in interest for projects related to ocean conservation and technology. “We think this would be kind of the center of that new expansion.”
The Hale Wawaloli Visitor Center would be an addition to the existing Wawaloli Beach Park facilities, and would serve as NELHA’s shoreline visitor education center. It is intended as a gift to the community and will include a 2,000-square-foot multi-purpose pavilion and 500-square-foot open amphitheater.
The project is funded in part via some $6.5 million NELHA received from FEMA and insurance companies from the destruction of NELHA’s buildings in Puna during the 2018 Kilauea volcanic eruption. The remainder will have to be allocated by the state Legislature or come from a donor.