Hawaii Volcanoes National Park still needs concessionaire

Pacific Business News: Hawaii Volcanoes National Park still needs concessionaire

The Volcano House at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which has hosted the likes of Mark Twain and Queen Liliuokalani, is having a hard time finding a new operator.

The historic inn has been closed since Jan. 1, 2010.

The National Park Service National Park Service

Latest from The Business Journals

Georgia cash poor for Civil War marketing
Arch visitors trapped when tram stalls
Newsmaker | Bill Ziebron

Follow this company says it’s going to put the concession to operate the 32-room hotel back out to bid later this month because it hasn’t received any qualified proposals to run the hotel.

A statement from Superintendent Cindy Orlando said that the park service director must “by law, reject proposals where the concessionaire is not qualified or the proposal is nonresponsive to the requirements of the Volcano House Prospectus.”

The park service first put out the call for the Volcano House back in December 2009, just before the contract with Hilo businessman Ken Fujiyama’s Ken Direction Corp. expired after 20 years. Fujiyama also operates the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort Naniloa Volcanoes Resort

Latest from The Business Journals

Scoops: Who’s moving, buying, opening, changing, winning
Hilo resort begins renovations, Fred Honda leaves as top exec
BIVB plans Lei Day fete in Oakland

Follow this company in Hilo.

The park put out a request for proposals, but noted that the new operator would have to invest nearly $5 million into refurbishing the aging property.

The prospectus included accommodations at the hotel and campground, food and beverage and retail. It initially said the new concessionaire would have to pay a franchise fee of 12.5 percent of gross receipts, but was later amended the prospectus to lower that figure to 9 percent.

The new prospectus will be posted this month on the federal government’s business opportunities site, and also on its commercial services site for the park service.

The current Volcano House, which is literally perched on the rim of the Kilauea Volcano caldera, was built 70 years ago after the main building burned down in a fire caused by an oil burner.

The first Volcano House was actually a grass hut built in 1846 by Benjamin Pittman Sr., according to the Volcano House website. It was rebuilt with grass and ohia poles in 1866, the same year that author Twain stayed there, writing, “the surprise of finding a good hotel at such as outlandish spot startled me, considerably more than the volcano did.”

The first wooden structure was built in 1877, and then in 1895 the hotel was acquired by George Lycurgus, who ran it for the next 65 years.

So the opportunity is there for someone to operate a little piece of Hawaii history.

No word, however, on whether the fire in the hotel lobby fireplace — which has been burning continuously for more than 125 years — is still burning.