Diocese buys 23 acres in Ewa for ‘gathering space’

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

The diocese’s largest vicariate has gotten larger — property-wise.

The Diocese of Honolulu on April 26 closed its purchase of an undeveloped 23-acre plot in Leeward Oahu that, according to diocesan planners, will be the site of a new church and island-wide gathering place.

The approximately $6 million buy is at the intersection of Old Fort Weaver Road and Fort Weaver Road, adjacent to the West Lock Golf Course. The closest parish is Immaculate Conception in Ewa, less than a mile away.

Tentative plans for the land include nine to 10 acres of parking, playing fields, and a dual purpose worship/meeting space that can be partitioned off or opened up depending on the size of an event.

The new gathering space would fit 2,000 people and could be used for large diocesan events such as youth and young adult gatherings and Oahu’s Annual Conference of Catholic Educators.

Diocesan director of planning Tom Papandrew says it will be about five years before a permanent structure is built on the property due to permit and zoning issues and the need to raise funds for buildings and land development.

Papandrew told the Hawaii Catholic Herald that now on the property is a private home leased on a month-to-month basis and a vacant building on Old Fort Weaver Road that was once a shave ice stand and small country store.

“The site was used as a plant nursery and for other agricultural activities in the past,” he said, and includes several drainage ditches that drain toward the West Lock Golf course. “It has areas that were cleared as well as areas that are heavily treed.”

Vicar general Father Marc Alexander said that incorporating a high school on the new property has been looked at as a possibility but that space would be “tight at best.”

Papandrew said that having enough space for locker rooms and playing fields for both girls and boys sports would be a problem.

“We could fit all the facilities but we lack a piece of land for all the recreational activities,” he said.

The diocese began looking for land to purchase last fall. It first came across this property in September. Papandrew says the search for more properties to purchase in the Leeward area continues, particularly in the Kapolei, Kalaeloa, and Makaiwa Hills areas.