Kona Seaside Shops renovation could reshape Ali‘i Drive corridor

A pie-slice-shaped cluster of shops on Ali‘i Drive could soon lose three of its five buildings and gain a new restaurant, kiosks and a larger outdoor dining area if county planners approve a Special Management Area use permit. The decision will help determine whether one of Kailua-Kona’s busiest visitor corridors gets a fresher retail face, more parking and a more active public courtyard, or whether the project gets slowed by concerns about construction, traffic and how the site fits the street.

The Kona Seaside Shops parcel at 75-5663 Palani Road covers 33,411 square feet and sits about 100 feet from the nearest shoreline, with another developed parcel between it and the water. The County of Hawaii Planning Department says the site is not considered a shoreline property, but it remains in the Special Management Area. The land is zoned Resort Hotel District 750-sf (V-.75) and designated Resort Node on the county land-use map, within the Kona Community Development Plan boundary adopted in 2008 and amended in 2019.

John C. Cross, senior land manager for Edmund C. Olson Trust No. 2, is the applicant behind the permit request. The plan calls for demolition of three structures totaling 2,080 square feet of retail and office space, plus additions and renovations to two existing buildings. One addition would measure 1,100 square feet and another, tied to a proposed restaurant, would add 1,854 square feet. The proposal also includes two 200-square-foot kiosks, 1,654 square feet of outdoor seating, an ADA-compliant courtyard, parking upgrades and new landscaping, bringing the project’s total proposed gross area to 9,688 square feet.

The current tenant mix includes Big Kahuna Beach Grill, Ka‘u Coffee Roasters Cafe and Journeys Cafe, along with Soda Pop Art and Lilikoi Boutique. The property sits in a dense commercial strip between Quinn’s Almost by the Sea and Kona Square, with Pacific 19 Kona, the former Kona Seaside Hotel, now operating at the corner of Palani Road and Kuakini Highway, and the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel next door. That location makes the project more than a building update: it could alter foot traffic, tenant turnover and the look of this stretch of Ali‘i Drive.

The Planning Director recommended approval before the public hearing, while noting that recommendation could change after testimony. The Leeward Planning Commission was set to take up the permit on Thursday, June 18, 2026, at 9:30 a.m. at the West Hawaii Civic Center, with written testimony due by Monday, June 15, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. The earlier Pacific 19 Kona remodel showed how aggressively owners are betting on reinvestment in the corridor, after Nine Brains Big Island LLC obtained the lease in 2022 and said the 1972 hotel had sat in an area that had seen too little investment and too much dependence on cruise-ship traffic.