Visions Clash as Hawaiian Park Tries to Turn Profit

It all depends on your perspective--or your passion, because the valley of Waimea evokes deep emotions in those who know it.

To Butch Helemano, a native Hawaiian who cares for an ancient lava-rock temple on Waimea’s ridge line, the valley is hallowed ground, the exclusive preserve of Hawaiian priests for hundreds of years and a priceless cultural treasure today.

Botanist David Orr finds the tranquil valley just as precious. Beneath its steep green cliffs and along the curving banks of the Waimea River, a one-of-a-kind botanical garden preserves some of the most endangered plants on the globe.

These days, however, it is the opinion of a New York-based businessman that carries the most weight in Waimea. To financier Christian Wolffer, the valley is a potentially lucrative investment: 1,800 acres of land bordering one of the world’s most spectacular beaches, the big-wave Waimea Bay on the island of Oahu.

Wolffer’s company, Euro Investors Property Inc. of Sagaponack, N.Y., bought a controlling interest in the privately held Waimea Falls Park as it tottered on foreclosure in 1996. At the time, he figured all three visions could happily coexist at the park, which encompasses the entire valley.

Others had their doubts. And now, after a string of unfortunate events, including arson, a drowning and permit hassles, even Wolffer may be beginning to wonder.

Asked in an interview whether he knew what he was getting into when he bought the property, the German-born investor acknowledged, “Unfortunately, no.” But he added quickly: “We never give up.”

Wolffer has big dreams for Waimea Valley, including building 120 cabins that will help turn this out-of-the-way natural attraction into a commercial destination. He sees it as a back-to-nature alternative to Hawaii’s luxury hotels, with private cottages scattered on the valley floor, where people can explore the great outdoors. He envisions a “wellness center” for harried urbanites, perhaps a surf center offering movies and lessons, and even an “air tram” or gondola for treetop views. His management team, Atlantis Adventures, is trying to attract new visitors by pitching Waimea as a place for adventure, from all-terrain-vehicle rides to kayaking.

“We want to give Waimea Valley some life,” Wolffer said.

But he is running into resistance from those who fear that the reorientation will put Waimea’s world-renowned plant collection at risk and undermine the cultural authenticity that has been the valley’s hallmark.

Park Suffers With Decline in Tourism

The low-key private park, which opened in 1974, has made its name as a botanical garden, bird sanctuary and showcase for Hawaii’s heritage. Scarlet-beaked gallinules, an endangered Hawaiian marsh bird, roam freely as tourists stroll under a canopy of trees. Visitors can inspect ancient Hawaiian temple and housing sites, take in hula and cliff-diving shows and try their hands at traditional Hawaiian games and crafts.

The Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden, in the heart of the park, boasts 6,000 types of plants, some of which no longer exist in the wild. They are arranged in dozens of gardens, some by geographic origin, others by plant family, all neatly documented. A hibiscus evolution garden, for example, traces the development of modern hybrids from old forms. Red labels highlight endangered species, and interpretive signs explain how various plants were used by the ancient Hawaiians.

“We offer a greater diversity of plants than you could find in a lifetime of exploration,” said Orr, the arboretum’s acting director. “You can stand completely surrounded by plants from Sri Lanka or the Mascarene Islands, and a few feet away be in the middle of a Fijian rain forest.”

The lure of botany, beauty and culture, however, has not been enough to cover overhead recently. The park, like many attractions, has been hit hard by declining tourist arrivals in Hawaii in this decade. And there’s also the fact that it is relatively remote, lying on the far side of the island from Waikiki. The previous owners, Attractions Hawaii, had defaulted on a $12-million loan when Euro Investors stepped in and renegotiated the debt.

Euro Investors now has an 80% stake in Waimea Falls Park and a sister property, Sea Life Park, a marine mammal facility on the south shore. Its other major holding is the Mercado Entertainment Complex in Orlando, Fla. The new owners believe dramatic changes are necessary to keep the Waimea facility going in a tough economic environment.

“We’re on a mission to save the park,” said General Manager Ray Greene. “This park has not made money in 10 years. Attendance is one-third of what it was in 1988. We need to give people reasons to keep coming back, and we must reach out to new markets.”

Renamed Waimea Valley Adventure Park, it is trying to attract younger, more active vacationers by offering mountain biking, horseback riding and all-terrain vehicle rides. To amuse children, the new managers built “Jungle Trek,” a plastic jungle gym in the midst of the botanical garden, with an African theme. Next to it, they installed a maze made of vinyl tarps attached to metal poles and a remote-control car game, partly displacing the orchid tree collection.

The changes have rankled some old-timers.

“The previous owners had a lot of love and respect for the Hawaiian culture,” said Helemano, who quit his job as a cultural guide and wood carver in November after nearly 10 years at the park. “It’s very obvious the new management does not. It’s turned into more a commercial, Disneyland operation. They’re trying to say, ‘We can do it all.’ But it’s like trying to mix oil and water.”

In the push to cut costs and reorient the park, dozens of employees have been let go, including top arboretum staff members and the park’s archeologist, a 20-year veteran who had uncovered ancient temples in the overgrown jungle. The total payroll has been whittled substantially. The botanical park still employs nine groundskeepers and a supervisor to maintain the plant collections, but it stopped funding the work of botanist Orr and three colleagues at the end of last year. In its heyday, the botanical park had more than 20 employees.

Its botanists grow rare species for the National Center for Plant Conservation and other facilities, but those activities are now threatened. Orr and his colleagues are sending seeds and cuttings to other gardens in hopes of preserving the species, and the nonprofit Waimea Arboretum Foundation is scrambling to raise private donations.

New Administration Demands Discipline

“The new owners look at this as a pretty backdrop for the adventure tours,” Orr said. “What they’re missing is that this is a living museum, a refuge for some of the rarest plants on the globe. Since they’ve taken over, we’ve lost valuable plants because we are way below minimal staffing. I don’t think any philanthropist could get more bang for his buck than to give an endowment to this arboretum.”

The contrast in management styles is stark. If Hawaii is known for relaxed attitudes and a slower pace of life, the North Shore is even more so. Not so the new park administration, which instituted a rigid on-time policy and mandatory drug tests for all employees. When the staff was called together for a June meeting that turned out to include drug testing, several male hula dancers quit rather than produce urine samples, reducing the size of the dance troupe considerably. Others have been fired for tardiness.

“The park doesn’t operate on ‘Hawaiian time,’ ” General Manager Greene said crisply, dismissing the laid-back local attitude toward punctuality. “We have published show times that we need to meet.”

Still, all has not gone as scheduled since the new owners took over in 1996.

In some ways, the valley seems almost jinxed. In 1997, a diver auditioning for the cliff show was killed when he hit his head on a rock at Waimea Falls. Earlier this year, a Japanese tourist drowned while swimming at the base of the waterfall. The park no longer had a lifeguard. The pool has since been closed to swimming.

In late March, arson destroyed a storage barn housing all-terrain vehicles and a tram that shuttled visitors around the property, causing $700,000 in damage.

In June, another tram caught fire while Wolffer was visiting the park. Fire officials believe it was an accident caused by an electrical short. No one was hurt, but the tram was a total loss and the flames shot so high they singed the leaves of an endangered gardenia tree.

A Hawaiian cultural group recently alerted authorities to possible threats to historic sites within the park, but state inspectors found no cause for alarm. Acting on complaints, however, the city of Honolulu did threaten to fine the park for failing to obtain permits for its adventure activities and for construction of the Jungle Trek. The park has hired a consultant to help it through the costly, time-consuming process of obtaining after-the-fact permits, which will require approval of the Honolulu City Council.

The situation frustrates Wolffer, who is eager to get things moving and, eventually, “roll up” his investment. The park, he says, is now close to breaking even.

“We are trying to invest money into the park rather than into legal fees and dealing with obstacles,” he said. “If we constantly get roadblocks laid out in our path, it’s not so easy. Special-interest groups want to keep the entire island as it is. But with no progress, there will be no future for Hawaii. We can’t preserve everything.”