The owners of Lehua Court, Bill Stockton and Steve Sahines, are in the beginning stages of working with our newly chosen architects. After interviewing several candidates, we entered into a preliminary contract with Polyline of Honolulu.
On December 17, 2020, Polyline principals Andrew Tang, Jason DeMarco, and Chris Lomboy flew to the Big Island for a meeting on the Lehua Court property site. We also invited several members from the local community including Patti Barry, Julie Enriques, Rick and Megan Shively, Bob Zeller, and Christine Kaehuaea.
The purpose of the meeting was to inspect the property and get some input from community members as to the needs of the area for this project. We stood in a circle and all that were there each took a turn in stating their ideas for a successful complex. We talked about the 'āina (the Land) and how to be good stewards. Many great ideas were brought up from the local representatives for the overall view of the project. There was talk of what businesses and services a resident might want to see, not having to travel for shopping and services, plus the blessings of not having to travel out of the area to go to work.
The architects and the owners continued the conversation over lunch, directing the ideas from the meeting and working towards a building plan. They were impressed with the local group and found the information conveyed to be most valuable. We provided them with site boundaries and topographic maps. We discussed the terrain and how we will incorporate and situate the buildings to fit the land. We discussed traffic flow as well as best entry and exits for the center. Wind direction and other weather effects were discussed (it actually rained pretty good that day!). Like all good plans, the first sketches were drawn on a napkin as we showed them what our original vision has always been.
The Polyline team left back to Honolulu enthusiastic and energized to begin on expanding the plan for Lehua Court. More to come!