For nearly 50 years, Kimo's Restaurant welcomed visitors to the Lahaina waterfront. Now — nearly three years after the popular restaurant's Front Street location was lost in the deadly August 2023 wildfire that destroyed much of the West Maui community — Kimo's is coming home.
Parent company T S Restaurants on Thursday announced it has signed a letter of intent to develop a new Kimo's location on Front Street.
"While the company continues to explore possibilities for the original Kimo’s site as redevelopment plans for the makai side of Front Street evolve, T S Restaurants is moving forward with a new Front Street location to ensure Kimo’s returns to the community as quickly as possible," the announcement notes.
T S Restaurants will partner with business leaders Kent Untermann and Mousa Hassan who are restoring the Chan Wa Building, which will be the restaurant's future home.
“We knew bringing Kimo’s back would require not only the right location but also the right partners,” T S Restaurants CEO Jackie Reed said in the announcement. “Kent and Mousa are longtime Hawaiʻi business leaders, trusted friends and people who care deeply about Lahaina. They were among the first to reach out after the fires asking how they could help. This partnership is built on trust, shared values and a common commitment to Lahaina's future.”
Untermann, co-founder of The Art Source Inc., whose family of brands include Pictures Plus, CocoNene and Plus Interiors, said in the announcement, “We’re honored that T S Restaurants chose to partner with us on this project, and we’re committed to helping bring back a place that contributes to the energy, vitality and long-term future of Front Street. Kimo’s is part of Lahaina’s identity and a place that generations of residents and visitors have visited.”
Meanwhile for Hassan, who lost several businesses in the fire, the opportunity is personal.
“Kimo’s has been part of my life for as long as I can remember,” he said in the announcement. “Like so many people in Hawaiʻi, I’ve spent a lifetime making memories there. Helping bring Kimo’s back to Front Street is an incredible honor, and I hope it becomes another step toward restoring the heart of Lahaina.”
T S Restaurants got its start in 1977 when Rob Thibaut and Sandy Saxten opened Kimo's, the first T S Restaurant, at 845 Front St., on the last available waterfront parcel in old Lahaina Town. Today, the family-owned company owns and operates 13 restaurants in Hawai‘i and California. Its Hawai‘i restaurants include Duke's Waikīkī and Hula Grill Waikīkī on O‘ahu; Kimo's, Leilani's on the Beach, Hula Grill Kā‘anapali and Duke's Beach House on Maui; and Duke's Kaua‘i and Keoki's Paradise on Kaua‘i. Duke's Kona will open on Hawai‘i Island in late 2026 and Duke's at the Cove in West O‘ahu is set to open in 2028.
Fire impacts
Aloha State Daily caught up with Reed last month — ahead of the anniversary of the fire and before this announcement was made — to talk more about the experience during the blaze and the company's ongoing recovery.
In the aftermath of the fire, Reed, said it was assumed that Kimo's was lost, but confirmation didn't come for at least a week.
"Finally, when somebody did a flyover and filmed, that's when we were able to get confirmation, but ... from what we had heard — and then seeing some videos of neighboring buildings that were engulfed in flames — we had assumed that Kimo's had burned down as well."
But in those moments — and for a long time after — Reed says that wasn't the company's main priority.
"And it still isn't. Our main priority is our T S ‘ohana," she told ASD. "Even though all of our employees survived, some of their families didn't, and we had almost 300 of them lose their homes and all of their belongings. That's all that we were thinking about. We knew that eventually we would assess what had happened with Kimo's, but our focus was on our ‘ohana. Through the generosity of the T S owners, our guests, so many people who just wanted to help, they donated to our Legacy of Aloha foundation and we were able to grant $2.3 million to our employees to help, which was really wonderful because they're on our payroll and we were able to do that quickly."
Reed had said last month that the company "definitely want[s] to bring Kimo's back to Front Street and that is a priority for us," but T S has been focused on the community and its Maui ‘ohana.
"Now that there is some activity, we're looking at all options. Of course, we would love to go back to our original location, but being that it was waterfront, that timeline seems like it's going to be a different timeline than some potential other locations, so we're continuing to explore opportunities to bring Kimo's back in hopefully what would be the first phase of redevelopment for Front Street," she said in June, noting then that nothing was confirmed at that time.
Commercial rebound
As the anniversary of the fire nears, commercial activity in Lahaina is starting to tick up.
An interim marketplace and community gathering spot in development by Hawaiian Council — with support from its Kākoʻo Maui Fund and the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation — will be the first project to bring storefronts back to Front Street, Maui County said in a July 2 announcement of its launch.
Called ‘Ulu o Lele — which means Growth of Lele and honors Lahaina's traditional name — the marketplace will be located at the former Outlets of Maui site and offer a temporary home for local businesses, nonprofits, cultural practitioners, farmers and community programming while permanent commercial redevelopment progresses, the announcement noted.
According to the county, Hawaiian Council, formerly known as the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, has secured a two-year lease for approximately three acres at the site and is leading the planning, development and implementation of the project, itself designed as an 18- to 24-month recovery initiative.
The project will use modular retail spaces and supporting infrastructure to "quickly activate the site and create new opportunities for local businesses and organizations," the announcement says. Meanwhile, the marketplace is expected to hold approximately 25 to 50 local vendors and help sustain about 90 jobs.
On Thursday, Hawaiian Council opened a vendor interest for businesses, nonprofits, cultural practitioners, farmers, food vendors and others interested in being a part of ‘Ulu o Lele.
According to the July 16 announcement from Hawaiian Council, a member-based nonprofit that works to advance the cultural, economic and community development of Native Hawaiians, this is the first step in the vendor selection process and asks prospective vendors to provide information about their business, connection to Lahaina, wildfire impacts, interest in the marketplace, readiness to operate, potential space needs and their vision for contributing to "an authentic Lahaina experience," among other details.
The Vendor Interest Form is available at uluolele.com and will be open through Sunday, July 26. It's not an application and doesn't guarantee participation in the marketplace.
A formal request for proposals will be released at a later date.
Overall, five Front Street commercial permits have been issued and two more commercial projects are nearing permits, according to recent information provided by Maui County. More than a dozen commercial properties are in planning consultation.
"Permitting and approvals in the Lahaina Historic districts have been one of the most heavily regulated processes in the state, involving national, state and local rules. Besides being one of the most storied places in Hawaiʻi and the Islands’ first capital, it was the only historic district in the state with buildings constructed out over the water," the county's July 2 announcement noted.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
