La Mariana Sailing Club, Honolulu, HI (restaurant)

Yikes! not good...

Massive Molasses Spill Devastates Honolulu Marine Life near La Mariana

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/12/221709158/massive-molasses-spill-devastates-honolulu-marine-life

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130917-molasses-oil-spill-hawaii-honolulu-cleanup/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

They say it will be (relatively) easy to fix compared to oil. Hopefully that molasses wasn't meant to make rum out of. :)

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2013-09-24 01:21 ]

Be there in November...

:)
:)
:)

On 2013-10-29 20:43, hang10tiki wrote:
Be there in November...

:)
:)
:)

We expect a full report when you get back (wid pix!).
David

On 2013-10-29 20:43, hang10tiki wrote:
Be there in November...

:)
:)
:)

When in Nov Jon? Wife and I might be in Hawaii end of Nov. there or S Cal haven't decided yet....

David- wow, how did I miss this
Better late than never

DAGG- guess we missed ya

Nov 2013
Went twice

My all time favorite spot

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2016-02-01 06:18 ]

While I'm at it
Jan 2015

Hope to make it back someday soon..

:)

7 Jan 2016

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: Hang10tiki 2016-02-02 07:08 ]

9 Jan 2016

Worst sound ever, slurp of an empty tiki mug through my straw!!!

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2016-02-01 06:26 ]

25 Jan 2018

Hang10- I love all the pics. Thanks for posting! I was there about 3 years ago and would love to return.

Funky- time to get back

24 March 2018

[ Edited by: hang10tiki 2018-04-20 21:39 ]

July 2018

I don't have access to the entire article, but saw this recap elsewhere regarding the lease situation at La Mariana.
Sounds like if they don't get the extension, they could possibly be closed very soon.

Don't know if anyone has a Star Advertiser subscription and can share any more of the article, or has heard anything more?

They are trying to get a one year extension (the max they can get) on their lease, which means it would expire in April 2020.

If they don't get that extension, they will be out of a lease by the end of April 2019. BLNR is already taking bids and proposals for the property. Here's a snip from the SA article:

"State officials are considering a one-year extension, but also intend to issue a public request for bids on a new lease for the site that includes the restaurant, a clubhouse, a gift shop, an apartment and about 120 slips for sailboats in what is largely an industrial neighborhood.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources is tasked with deciding whether to grant La Mariana the extra year of occupancy, which would follow a five-year extension to its original 35-year lease."

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/03/25/hawaii-news/sailing-club-faces-an-uncertain-future-as-their-lease-is-set-to-expire-in-april/

Sailing club faces an uncertain future as their lease is set to expire in April

14 hours ago - La Mariana Sailing Club could be facing its biggest survival test yet as the lease of the state land it occupies near Sand Island is expiring at the end of April.

(got a link that worked without subscription log-in)

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/03/25/hawaii-news/sailing-club-faces-an-uncertain-future-as-their-lease-is-set-to-expire-in-april/?HSA=ea9e1a195c22b902509fb5ea8d601a94222e7ab5&fbclid=IwAR0uH10TW7Dz3eWoUSri5Wl0bW-KjAXwGBMpZJagqdT3-6jqVhIHX0Gmci0

La Mariana Sailing Club has survived two tsunamis, a swindler’s attempted takeover and more than 60 years in business. But the waterfront fixture at Keehi Lagoon could be facing its biggest survival test yet.

The restaurant, tiki bar and sailing club with seafaring charm occupies state land near Sand Island under a lease expiring at the end of April.

State officials are considering a one-year extension, but also intend to issue a public request for bids on a new lease for the site that includes the restaurant, a clubhouse, a gift shop, an apartment and about 120 slips for sailboats in what is largely an industrial neighborhood.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources is tasked with deciding whether to grant La Mariana the extra year of occupancy, which would follow a five-year extension to its original 35-year lease.

BLNR deferred decision- making on the issue in February but could take action at its meeting next month.

The impending lease termination in April or next year presents the latest challenge to realizing a desire of La Mariana’s late founder, Annette Nahinu, to have the business last 100 years.

Nahinu, a New York-born adventurous sailor who taught for a time at Kamehameha Schools, founded La Mariana in 1955 with her then-husband close to where the business is today.

According to company lore, Nahinu, who died in 2008 at age 93, named the club after her Italian maiden name referring to the sea. At its inception, the club had 13 members who paid a $2 membership fee and 50 cents a month for slip space.

La Mariana’s current site, a former junkyard converted into what the company describes as a “lush hideaway” and “one of-a-kind oasis” in the middle of Honolulu’s industrial core, was leased from the state in 1978 after Nahinu had to vacate the club’s first location about 50 yards away, according to Nahinu’s company history.

“A herculean effort was expelled and within three days we moved the clubhouse, 20 docks, 30 boats, 83 palm trees, and a monkey pod tree 15 feet high, a shower tree eighteen feet high, flowering shrubs, plants, hedges, etc., etc.,” the account reads.

Nahinu in her written account also described how in 1992 at the tail end of the Japanese investment bubble in Hawaii, she accepted a $7.8 million offer for the restaurant from a Japanese company. Though the deal fell through, Nahinu considered it fortunate in a way.

“La Mariana survived,” she wrote.

In 2008, the establishment faced another threat when a company headed by purported businessman and pastor John Mendoza sued Nahinu, claiming she had sold him the business for $1.

Representatives of Nahinu said she was misled and had a diminished mental capacity when she signed a sale agreement. Two months after Mendoza filed his lawsuit, Nahinu died.

A state judge dismissed Mendoza’s lawsuit in 2010, and shortly thereafter Mendoza was sentenced by a federal judge to six years in prison for leading a mortgage fraud scheme involving two homes on Oahu.

Because Nahinu had no heirs, ownership of La Mariana passed to a trust that holds the company’s stock.

Another threat to the business descended in 2011 when ocean surges from a tsunami generated by a deadly Japan earthquake sank boats and wrecked docks at the club. La Mariana, which had survived lesser impacts from a 1960 tsunami that devastated Hilo and caused damage on Oahu, told the state it spent $427,579 on repairs.

Because La Mariana’s lease was set to expire in 2014, BLNR gave La Mariana a five-year extension to help it recoup repair costs.

Now the land board is being asked to provide an extra year of occupancy for the company, which pays $75,600 annually for the land. A Department of Land and Natural Resources staff report describes an additional year as the “most equitable solution.”

The extension technically treats La Mariana as a “holdover” tenant because the five-year extension was the maximum allowed under state law.

Judith Calma, a longtime employee who runs the company for Nahinu’s trust, did not respond to requests for an interview.

Regular customers say they they can’t imagine losing La Mariana, which has artifacts from bygone Honolulu restaurants and tiki bars as part of its decor, which includes pufferfish lanterns, glass fishing floats, tiki posts, Christmas lights, fish tanks, a piano and a waterfall splashing into giant clamshells.

“La Mariana is a living treasure,” said Waikiki tattoo shop owner Winona Martin, who said she’s been a regular customer for more than 40 years. “This is a historical landmark and monument.”

Retired Salt Lake resident Maryann Tilton, who has been visiting La Mariana almost daily for the last two years, said a waitress recently sang “Happy Birthday” to her in Hawaiian.

“Where else can you go that they do that?” she asked, adding that the ambiance is special. “It’s a place that tourists would love to come, but we try not to tell tourists about it.”

sigh

Going to Maui next month, now I'm thinking I may need to do a Honolulu overnighter.

My boss and his family visited Oahu last month. La Mariana was one of the places I suggested they go, but they didn't. NOW THEY'LL REGRET IT!

Going to Hawaii in August. Hope it's still there.

Just saw online

4 May 2019

La Mariana sets sail for next 20 years

La Mariana sailing club started what could be
It’s next 20 years in business at Keehi lagoon
Wednesday after avoiding a scheduled termination
of its state land lease.

Finally got to read the full article:

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/05/02/hawaii-news/la-mariana-sets-sail-for-next-20-years/?HSA=a6e980b5bb5a944406d1e23e3140a72d4dd1a9cb&fbclid=IwAR0Ea9xbkslWJ7cL_YgNzxUcfUqzOw3a3aFbqEBGssBiSXWFecRkaYCiGEs

La Mariana Sailing Club started what could be its next 20 years in business at Keehi Lagoon Wednesday after avoiding a scheduled termination of its state land lease.

The popular restaurant, tiki bar and sailboat slip operator last week convinced the state Board of Land and Natural Resources to extend the company’s original 35-year lease for a second time.

In February, a Department of Land and Natural Resources staff report recommended giving La Mariana one additional year as a “holdover” tenant because a previous five-year extension granted in 2013 and effective in 2014 was deemed the maximum allowed under state law.

However, La Mariana made a case that the law allows DLNR to extend a lease so that a lessee can recoup expenses for substantially improving a property as long as the entire term of the lease doesn’t exceed 65 years.

Jason Tani, an attorney with local law firm Rush Moore LLP representing La Mariana, cited a statute for this in a March 25 letter to DLNR official Richard Howard.

La Mariana had spent $427,579 to repair damage to docks and other facilities caused by a 2011 tsunami. The company had cited the expenses, verified by DLNR, as a reason for wanting a 10-year lease extension in 2013, but at that time was told by DLNR that a five-year extension was the maximum allowed, according to Tani’s letter.

La Mariana said in February that as of January it it still owed $377,624 on a loan obtained to make the repairs.

DLNR recommended only a one-year holdover beyond the lease’s scheduled April 30 expiration, and aimed to offer a new lease at a public auction to the highest bidder next year.

“Given that the lessee was forced to expend a large sum of money (which has not been repaid to this date) due to an act of God, staff believes that a one-year holdover is the most equitable solution,” the staff report said.

La Mariana objected, and a decision was deferred at a February board meeting.

At one point since then, DLNR was considering a seven-year extension. But La Mariana sought 20, and pointed out that it could have asked for up to 25.

“La Mariana is still amortizing its costs from the damage caused by the 2011 tsunami, and at a significant cost given the short amortization period and large amount of the loan,” Tani said in the March letter.

DLNR’s board last week voted 7-0 to approve the 20-year extension, which brings the total term of the lease to 60 years.

As part of the new extension, La Mariana has committed to make additional improvements to the property — an estimated $467,750 in work to repair its three main docks, one of which it said was seriously damaged by a storm in early February.

Also, La Mariana will pay a new fair market value rent to be calculated using a DLNR appraisal and applied retroactively to Wednesday. Previously, La Mariana was paying $75,600 a year to lease the property, which includes land under the restaurant, parking lot, a clubhouse, a gift shop, an apartment and about 120 boat slips. There may be a discrepancy as to the area being used for boat slips, but that will be surveyed and adjusted if necessary, according to Ed Underwood, administrator of DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.

If the future of La Mariana plays out as envisioned for another 20 years, it will have been a fixture in the area for nearly 85 years.

Annette Nahinu founded La Mariana in 1955 with her husband at the time on a site about 50 yards from where the business is today. The present site, a former junkyard, was turned into what La Mariana describes as a “lush hideaway” and “one of-a-kind oasis” in the middle of the industrial area.

Nahinu died in 2008 at age 93, and since then the business has been run by longtime employee Judith Calma for a trust created by Nahinu.

Thats frickin' awesome

"Also, La Mariana will pay a new fair market value rent to be calculated using a DLNR appraisal and applied retroactively to Wednesday. Previously, La Mariana was paying $75,600 a year to lease the property, which includes land under the restaurant, parking lot, a clubhouse, a gift shop, an apartment and about 120 boat slips. There may be a discrepancy as to the area being used for boat slips, but that will be surveyed and adjusted if necessary, according to Ed Underwood, administrator of DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation."

Damn, they would make a ton I would think even without selling anything at the bar restaurant.
What does a boat slip go for per year where they are, plus an apartment goes for like what in Hawaii?

The Tropical Bistro here in crap town Ohio rented for more than that.

Glad they are staying I still want to go.

10 July 2019

29 OCT 2019

Tanks fer your posts Jon

La Mariana has been showing up in every episode of Magnum P.I. this season. Rick bought the bar in the opening episode and its become the location for many of the show's opening or closing scenes of the episodes. I can't tell if they filmed it all in the club or built a re-creation on a sound stage somewhere, but the exterior shot in the premier was clearly on property.

Other than the first episode where they used an exterior shot in the parking lot, all the filming is done on a set.
https://www.tvinsider.com/814984/magnum-pi-season-2-la-mariana-tiki-bar/

They do a lot of filming on sets on that show, which they do a good job of camouflaging (example: Magnum's bungalow doesn't open wide to a vast lawn).

On 2019-11-16 12:57, kevincrossman wrote:
Other than the first episode where they used an exterior shot in the parking lot, all the filming is done on a set.
https://www.tvinsider.com/814984/magnum-pi-season-2-la-mariana-tiki-bar/

They do a lot of filming on sets on that show, which they do a good job of camouflaging (example: Magnum's bungalow doesn't open wide to a vast lawn).

And the whole Robin's Nest property is a CGI'ed house on top of a state park or something.

La Mariana reopened yesterday for the first time since COVID shutdowns, with refreshed interior from Gecko. Some parts of the venue are still being refreshed but this is still some great news.

Great news, Thanks for the update!

Still going strong. I was there last night and had a great time👍

Thanks for the updated pictures - glad you had a great time!