The Chinatown Cultural Plaza will be demolished and redeveloped, the City and County of Honolulu announced Wednesday. When Aloha State Daily visited the site, we saw Taiwan and U.S. flags flapping in the wind, graffiti scrawled on the side of the plaza, empty storefronts, and a handful of restaurants and shops.
Honolulu Mayor Blangiardi has been open with his frustration over the property over the past five years and has pushed for improvements as part of a broader revitalization effort in Chinatown. He met with a Taiwanese delegation in Honolulu in July to discuss the future of the Chinatown Cultural Plaza. In a statement issued Wednesday, he said that the redevelopment is a breakthrough to transform Chinatown and Honolulu.
“This is about much more than redeveloping a single property,” Blangiardi said. “It is about what Chinatown can become. This community has extraordinary history, culture and character, and we want to see that reflected in its future. A revitalized Cultural Plaza can help bring new energy and economic activity into Chinatown while remaining a place that celebrates the cultures and traditions that have made this community so special.”
Six Chinese organizations designed and built the 3.97-acre Chinatown Cultural Plaza in 1974. Taiwan purchased the property in 1979 through China Airlines and Longevity International Enterprises Corporation has managed the plaza since.
The center, located at 100 N. Beretania St., is bordered by River Street, Kukui Street and Maunakea Street. The Mun Lun School is not part of the Chinatown Cultural Center.
In April 2025, Blangiardi told the Chinatown-Downtown neighborhood board that he was “totally dissatisfied … with the state of the cultural plaza,” pointing to disrepair.
Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock, founder of the Chinatown Business and Community Association and chair of the Downtown-Chinatown neighborhood board, told Aloha State Daily Thursday that the “plaza is dilapidated from years of neglect.”
The management company has not adequately addressed maintenance over the years, leading to holes in the ceiling and broken elevators, Shubert-Kwock said. Community members have also seen homeless encampments, drug use and illegal gambling at the plaza.
Shubert-Kwock said that the property managers should be held accountable for failing to maintain the building to proper standards. She expressed concern that tenants will not be compensated for moving before their leases are up and received short notice of the lease terminations, calling it “unfair to tenants.”
Shubert-Kwock added that she supports the redevelopment project, and said she'd like to see affordable housing, retail, restaurants and public parking at the site. She would also like a large Chinese restaurant at the plaza. The Empress Restaurant opened in 1979 and closed by the end of 2018, leaving a 10,000-square-foot banquet space empty on the second floor of the Chinatown Cultural Center and eliminating a banquet space for community gatherings, she noted.
Eddie Flores, co-founder of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue and chairman of A Better Chinatown Association, said that the plaza was beautiful when it was first built, but “slowly, gradually deteriorated” after it was sold to Taiwan.
“The problem is mismanagement,” Flores said. “Nobody cares. I’ve never seen a property so mismanaged in my life.”
Flores said that the redevelopment could bring affordable housing, retail, a community center and a large Chinese restaurant to the plaza.
“We’re looking forward to the future. People are afraid to go there at nighttime," he said.
Flores gave Blangiardi an “A+” for advocating for change in Chinatown. He said that Chinatown has been a center of business activity, community and historical significance, and the area could be a tourist attraction second to Waikīkī with investment.
According to the City and County of Honolulu, preliminary work at the plaza will include environmental impact assessments and archaeological studies, followed by demolition of existing structure and requests for redevelopment proposals.
Longevity International Enterprises Corporation and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu did not respond to ASD’s request for comment.
It’s not clear how the demolition and reconstruction will impact local events like the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Hawaiʻi Chinatown Peace Festival, formerly called the Buddha Peace Festival, used to be held at the Chinatown Cultural Plaza and has moved to Maunakea Marketplace in recent years.
Tenants were given a notice of lease termination and must vacate the premises by March 31, 2027, per the county.
Sandy’s Café has been open since 2020, and the restaurant’s lease is up in 2028, owner Henry Cheng said Thursday. The restaurant is in a good location, he said, adding that increased security could deter homeless people and improve conditions.
Cheng said that tearing down the plaza could mean the end to the businesses that set up shop there.
Eva Chen, one of the owners of Lee Ho Fook Restaurant, has been operating the restaurant out of the Chinatown Cultural Plaza for 30 years. She does not currently have plans to relocate, and her son, Matthew Wu, said that his parents want to take a break when the lease ends in March and may reopen in the future.
Wu said that the plaza seemed thriving and livelier when he was younger, but has turned into a “ghost town” in the last five years.
Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam said by email Thursday, “My priority is making sure the existing tenants receive clear communication, timelines and expectations as this project moves forward. I want the City to be a partner in supporting these businesses as much as possible and will continue advocating for our small businesses throughout this process. I hope the redevelopment will contribute to a stronger, more vibrant Chinatown while recognizing the important role these longtime businesses play in our community.”
Haley Lehman can be reached at haley@alohastatedaily.com.
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