Lahaina Community Land Trust to steward Kainehe, ʻāina momona that once fed Lahaina people

The Lahaina Community Land Trust is setting forth on a new path to steward Kainehe, known in recent decades as 1050 Front Street, turning this ground into a living history and gathering space to celebrate this ʻāina momona that once fed Lahaina’s aliʻi.

LCLT is a nonprofit formed after the August 2023 fire by longtime Lahaina community members—including those who lost homes and those with generational knowledge of this special place—to ensure that Lahaina’s lands remain forever in the hands of its people.

Since the fire, LCLT’s foremost focus has been keeping Lahaina ‘ohana home by rebuilding houses and securing land to become permanently affordable housing through the nationally-recognized Community Land Trust model.

This new commitment represents the next chapter in that work. Families are beginning to return, homes are being rebuilt, and Lahaina is slowly and carefully charting a path to become a thriving community once again. But recovery is not only about housing. It is also about healing. It is about having places for ‘ohana to gather, to grieve, and to celebrate.

“We want to rebuild Lahaina on a foundation rooted in values, honoring history and moving toward a compass point with future generations at the center,” said Autumn Ness, Executive Director of Lahaina Community Land Trust. “Kainehe is one of the first expressions of that vision. LCLT isnʻt just protecting ʻāina for housing, weʻre protecting ʻāina for history, culture, memory, and for the generations who will continue telling Lahaina’s story.”

LCLT’s dream for Kainehe answers that need directly by creating a living, breathing public space where art, play, and ancestral knowledge come together to reclaim ‘āina and the story of Lahaina for the people who for centuries have called this place home. This vision is made possible by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation’s transfer of the ‘āina to LCLT.

“The Weinberg Foundation is proud to entrust the future of this ‘āina to the Lahaina Community Land Trust,” said Marisa Castuera Hayase, the foundation’s vice president of programs. “Lahaina’s recovery is deeply important for all of Hawaiʻi, and LCLT’s resident-led models for long-term housing and community well-being are key to our shared future. We are honored to see LCLT steward this land in a way that will benefit the people of Lahaina for generations to come.”

The project reflects a broader truth at the heart of LCLT’s mission: that Lahaina’s people and land are inseparable, and restoring the community’s ecosystems depends on restoring the people who hold the ʻike to care for them. As LCLT works to keep Lahaina families in Lahaina through building affordable homes, Kainehe stands as a tangible expression of what a Community Land Trust can hold beyond physical shelter—living history, cultural memory, and joy.

Inspired in part by Waimahara Park in Aotearoa, which resurfaces the ancient waters that flow beneath the city through art, the gathering space at Kainehe will become once again home to nourishing groves of ‘ulu, niu and kalo, alongside educational spaces and living art installations that draw directly from this ʻāina’s own story.

That story begins with wai. Water once moved through this ʻāina the way breath moves through our bodies, down from Kahoma Stream, through ʻauwai and into loʻi kalo and groves of ʻulu and niu. The people who tended it called it Kainehe, once held by High Chief Piʻikoi and depended upon to help feed the aliʻi and the lāhui.

“For the family that called this area home, they took a lot of pride in their cultivation of kalo,” explained Kapali Keahi, who serves on LCLT’s Board of Directors. “That should be described as their wealth: loʻi, breadfruit trees, and an abundance of fresh water, feeding the lāhui.”

To learn more visit lahainacommunitylandtrust.org/kainehe.