Nearly three years after the August 2023 fire, the comeback of Lahaina’s Front Street finally has names to show. Fleetwood’s is coming back. So is the old Six Fathoms building at 612 Front, being rebuilt close to what burned, and the spot longtime visitors knew as Paia Fish Market.
For anyone who carries the old Front Street in memory, as we do, those names land harder than any permit count does. That is the real news this summer and why we’re going to report on the ground, and it comes with a caveat worth keeping straight, because most of the historic core is still bare lots and construction fencing.
Two recoveries are underway here at the same time, each moving at a very different speed. The fast one is a temporary marketplace, Ulu o Lele, going up on the old Outlets of Maui site to put local storefronts back within just months.
The slow one is the permanent rebuild of the historic core, still counted in five permits and a dozen properties working through a slow historic-district review process. There was a blessing of a new walkway on July 1.
The temporary marketplace is the Lahaina fast track.
Ulu o Lele, whose name means growth of Lele, the older name for Lahaina, is being developed by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement through its Kakoo Maui recovery initiative and a major grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation. CEO Kuhio Lewis has framed it as a small beginning, meant to bring energy and some normalcy back to a town still finding its way.
The plan puts 17 retail units, a performance stage, and 8 food truck spaces on the old Outlets of Maui site, built from modular structures rather than permanent construction, which is why it can move quickly, ahead of the larger rebuild. Subsidized rents will run from $800 to $1,500, with priority given to businesses directly affected by the fire and to tenants rotating so more of them get a turn on the street.
The projected cost is about $8 million, including a $4 million Maui Strong Fund grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation. A request for proposals is coming; a Lahaina advisory committee will choose the tenants, and the marketplace is projected to open in September.
The county calls it the first project to bring storefronts back to Front Street and is careful to refer to it as a pilot and interim. That is the part visitors should hear, because it is a return to Front Street, not the return of the Front Street most people still remember.
Five permits show the far slower rebuild.
The actual number behind the July 1 blessing is still small. Five commercial permits have been issued for Lahaina town, with one building under construction.
Two more commercial properties are in process, and more than 12 are still in pre-application consultation. Front Street right now is permits, construction fencing, and bare lots, plus the long work of getting private buildings back into one of the most regulated of all historic districts in Hawaii.
The county can finish a walkway on a visible schedule. But a private building inside Lahaina’s historic district needs to go through national, state, and local rules before a tenant can ever unlock a door, and that timeline runs differently.
The storefronts coming back, by name.
The permanent rebuilds have addresses too, and a few are already recognizable. At 612 Front, the former Six Fathoms, a six-tenant building, is permitted to be rebuilt close to what was burned.
At 632 Front, the spot longtime visitors knew as the old Burger King and later Paia Fish Market, the rebuild is keeping the same look and feel. Farther along, 714 and 724 Front are permitted to come back nearly identical to their original construction.
The hardest of them is 744 Front, the Lahaina building known as Fleetwood’s. That is a full historic restoration that county officials say is on the verge of its final permits. Many of these follow updated design guidelines that hold Lahaina’s historic look while allowing fire-resistant materials like fiber cement siding and standing seam metal roofs.
Where visitors actually find businesses now.
For visitors asking what is open on Front Street right now, the answer is not the stretch most people still picture from before the fire. The operating commercial life remains farther north, near Lahaina Cannery and the restaurants around it, including Honu Oceanside, Mala Ocean Tavern, Coco Deck, Aloha Mixed Plate, and Star Noodle.
The harbor tells the same split story. It reopened in December after 28 months closed, and operators have begun trickling back, with Atlantis Submarines resuming in June on a sub towed over from Oahu.
Of the 48 companies displaced by the fire, only seven have returned so far, and the ones that did came back to a hard lesson. The head of the state activities and attractions association said early operators felt like they had won the lottery getting back, only to find visitors hesitant to walk through a still-scarred town, and they did not come in the numbers anyone had hoped for.
That is the gap the announcements miss. The infrastructure is returning faster than the visitors are, and a reopened storefront or submarine tour is not the same as a street that feels alive again.
Move toward the older heart of Front Street, and the scene changes fast. The area most visitors associate with galleries, shops, restaurants, the banyan tree, and the old Lahaina waterfront is still defined by fences, bollards, road closures, and empty ground where familiar places once stood.
Lahaina returns to people before storefronts.
The next visible return comes July 17 to 19, when Lahaina Homecoming brings people back to Front Street for a weekend of culture, food, music, and storytelling. The gatherings are planned along Front Street from Prison to Dickenson, placing people on the street before commerce fills it again.
For three days, the block belongs to people, not storefronts. Before the shops return in any familiar number, Front Street becomes a place for residents and families to stand together again, which may be the truest sign of return the town has right now.
Photo credit: County of Maui.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
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Thank you for this article. This is the kind of news and information I look to Beat of Hawaii to provide. I hope these first few businesses serve as catalyst for many more and we look forward to supporting them. We know it can never be the same for us old timers who loved old Lahaina, but we are hopeful new Lahaina will be just as special.
Was wondering if there has been any discussion of rebuilding and/or relocating a rebuilt version of the old historic Pioneer Hotel?
Sure hope that red tape and political/ bureaucratic foot dragging doesn’t keep stalling the rebuilding of Lahaina.
Aloha to all.
Thanks for posting about what’s happening with the Front St. rebuild. I was very happy to hear about the “Lahaina Homecoming” – seems like a great way to encourage residents and visitors alike. Wish I were there to volunteer for the event. I was never a big Front St. fan (except for the Paia Fish Market!)- I felt it had increasingly become too touristy and crowded. Just not my cup of tea. But I realize it’s an important part of a Maui vacation for many people, as well as very important to residents. May the permitting process speed up for all concerned!