The developers of a planned Hilo water bottling plant and coffee business hope to succeed where previous projects failed by giving back to the community.
Hawaiian Kingdom Brands plans to build a 30,000-square-foot water bottling and coffee roasting facility on a lot at the intersection of Mililani and Piilani streets. The proposed facility would drill a 1,000-foot well into an untapped aquifer beneath the lot and would extract up to 200,000 gallons of water a day, according to a letter issued on the business’ behalf.
The project is strikingly similar to the plans of Piilani Partners LLC, a company that also sought to build a bottling plant and well on the exact same site, but was ultimately denied by the Windward Planning Commission in 2019 after extensive community backlash.
However, DuWayne Waipa, president of Hawaiian Kingdom Brands, claimed his business has no affiliation or connection with Piilani Partners.
“They didn’t consult with the Hawaiians, they didn’t consult with the local people,” Waipa said. “They went ahead, and it looked to be they were going to come in, use resources, and they weren’t going to employ local people, they weren’t going to help with the local economy. And I believe that is one of the reasons they got so much pushback.”
Waipa said Hawaiian Kingdom Brands is dedicated to serving the Native Hawaiian community, which he said has been disadvantaged ever since Hawaii statehood was granted in 1959. The business, he went on, will employ an all-Native Hawaiian advisory board that will guide the company’s decisions.
“If our people don’t want it, we won’t do it,” Waipa said.
Bob Garrett, a coffee roaster overseeing the coffee production side of the business, said the facility will employ 50 to 60 people in various jobs ranging from transportation, logistics and working the on-site restaurant.
Garrett said the coffee will use entirely local ingredients and will be of some of the highest quality in the world.
“When you want to produce the best coffee drinks, you want to use the purest water,” Garrett said, adding that the well will be constructed so as to have no risk of contaminating the aquifer, and packaging for the water and coffee will use recycled or biodegradable materials.
Garrett estimated the facility could produce 20,000 to 30,000 cans of coffee a day. He added that the business hopes to distribute its products throughout the state, but said that any out-of-state distribution plans have yet to be determined.
By starting a business in Hilo that uses local resources to serve local customers and provide local jobs, Waipa said he hopes to provide another way for Native Hawaiians to make a living on the island.
“(Native Hawaiians’) very way of life is being stripped,” Waipa said. “Crime, inflation, low quality of life, homelessness … living and working in Hawaii has become an impossible dream for Native Hawaiians.”
The company’s mission statement reads that the business “will be a visible reminder to the world that the Hawaiian Kingdom exists. Our intention is to live Aloha and share Aloha with the world.”
As for the company’s profits, Waipa said he wants to find ways to share the company’s success with the rest of the community through events such as beach cleanup days.
However, the business is still fledgling. Waipa said he knows the facility will cost millions of dollars, additionally claiming that he is still courting investors.
Meanwhile, Waipa’s wife, Jenilee, said the company is in the process of pursuing an environmental assessment, after which it will enter the permitting stage with the county Planning Department. She said she thinks that, realistically, the matter should make it to a Windward Planning Commission meeting sometime next year.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.