Kaiser Permanente buys 6-acre site currently occupied by The Maui News in Wailuku

Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has reached agreement with Maui Island Holdings, LLC to purchase the 6.28-acre site currently occupied by The Maui News, located adjacent to the Kaiser Permanente Wailuku Medical Office and northwest of Maui Memorial Medical Center (which is operated by Kaiser Foundation Hospitals subsidiary Maui Health).

The property being sold is at 100 Mahalani Street in Wailuku and includes three buildings totaling more than 43,000 square feet that are home to The Maui News and the press where The Maui News and other publications are printed.

With the sale of the buildings, The Maui News plans to close its printing press within the next year and transition printing of The Maui News and its other clients to another press.

The purchase agreement allows The Maui News to continue operating at the site for up to a year, but General Manager Jenni DeFouw said the newspaper is working to identify new office space and move as quickly as possible. The paper is currently published daily online and weekly on Thursdays in print.

The Maui News is an affiliate of West Virginia-based Ogden Newspapers. According to DeFouw, more than half of the current building space is not occupied.

Kaiser Permanente reports the purchase will allow the provider to better serve the community with expanded health services.

“This move will allow both our organizations to continue serving the Maui community for years to come,” said John Yang, MD, president and medical director, Hawaiʻi Permanente Medical Group, which oversees care delivery for Kaiser Permanente in Hawaiʻi.

Kaiser Permanente currently serves 12.6 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. For more information, go to about.kp.org.