Waikikian's Tiki Tower to be demolished

Hi folks. Thanks for all the input on this wonderful website. I've been lurking for awhile but decided to register to post this news tidbit. I read in a local business newspaper that the Waikikian's Tiki Tower, the remaining building of what's left of the Waikikian Hotel, is being demolished in the next month or two to make way for a 38 story time-share tower (like we need another one of those). The Tahitian Lanai was already razed a couple of years ago, so now they are going to finish the job. Here is a link to the article in the online version of the newspaper (you will need to register, but it is simple and free).

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/02/28/focus2.html

There is also an editorial discussing it's unfortunate recent history and destruction in the same online edition.

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/02/28/editorial2.html

It may have already been posted before, but here is a link to a fan's Waikikian/Tahitian Lanai website, with some history and nice pics. Just go to the bottom of the page and click the Tiki Coffee Shop icon.

http://members.tripod.com/gregg-n/

I only live a block away from it. Guess I'll pay one last visit to the site to say aloha and mahalo one final time.

Apologies if any of this has been posted already.

Sad, but that place was the least original structure of the whole complex. What is amazing to me is that it has taken so long.

That they razed the Waikikian Hotel and Tahitian Lanai to leave the lot empty for all this time is the biggest shame. For a whole 7 years, these classic places could have continued to exist for the enjoyment of Tiki tourists and local Hapa Haole playing oldtimers alike, instead of having a barren lot lay there.

I got a kick out of all the rumors that happened months before that place closed. Someone at the front desk said it had no plans to close, ( I worked at a local sign company at the time and they ordered lobby signage a month until closing). Another said it was going to be bought up by the Japanese and turned into a mall with the Tahitian Lanai modernized (I’m glad that never happened).

I won’t soon forget the endless auction where everything and the kitchen sink was sold with the tiki items getting all the attention. The editorial on the article went into how that place was too cramped in that area of Waikiki but once you hit the tiki gardens it was like entering another world. It’s nice that people are still waxing nostalgically there years later.

And yesterday they broke ground for the "Grand Waikikian". Do you think they'll include 50 ft tikis on the site?

http://starbulletin.com/2006/06/16/business/story01.html