Nonprofit farm receives land in Makaha Valley

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 26 MA 'O Organic Farms has received 249 acres of undeveloped land in Makaha Valley from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Above, MA 'O farmer Veronica Dacquel checks organic eggplants being grown at the farm in Waianae.

1 /3 CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 26 MA 'O Organic Farms has received 249 acres of undeveloped land in Makaha Valley from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Above, MA 'O farmer Veronica Dacquel checks organic eggplants being grown at the farm in Waianae.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 26 MA 'O Organic Farms has received 249 acres of undeveloped land in Makaha Valley from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Above, a view of some of the undeveloped land.

2 /3 CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 26 MA 'O Organic Farms has received 249 acres of undeveloped land in Makaha Valley from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Above, a view of some of the undeveloped land.

JAMM AQUINO / 2020 Gary Maunakea-Forth, co-founder of MA 'O Organic Farms, holds some carrots harvested from the farm in Waianae.

3 /3 JAMM AQUINO / 2020 Gary Maunakea-Forth, co-founder of MA 'O Organic Farms, holds some carrots harvested from the farm in Waianae.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 26 MA 'O Organic Farms has received 249 acres of undeveloped land in Makaha Valley from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Above, MA 'O farmer Veronica Dacquel checks organic eggplants being grown at the farm in Waianae.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / SEPT. 26 MA 'O Organic Farms has received 249 acres of undeveloped land in Makaha Valley from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Above, a view of some of the undeveloped land.

JAMM AQUINO / 2020 Gary Maunakea-Forth, co-founder of MA 'O Organic Farms, holds some carrots harvested from the farm in Waianae.

A nonprofit organic farm in Waianae that provides job and higher-education opportunities for West Oahu residents intends to make affordable housing part of its operation.

MA 'O Organic Farms has received ownership of 249 acres of undeveloped land in Makaha Valley from the The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

About 200 acres of the gift is zoned for residential use that was designated long ago as part of an unrealized plan to turn much of Makaha Valley into a resort area rivaling Waikiki.

MA 'O said it plans to provide housing that supports the next generation of aina, or land, stewards and their families in the region served by the organization.

"Since 2000, our work has been rooted in our conviction and belief that a healthy aina is essential to a healthy people, " Tina Tagad, director of development and impact at MA 'O, said in a statement announcing the land grant. "We affirm our commitment to growing abundance in Makaha in ways that invest in our community's strengths, uphold our indigenous cultural knowledge and food systems, and prioritize aina-based approaches to ecological sustainability."

The land in Makaha Valley, which is two valleys away from MA 'O's farm operation in Lua ­lualei Valley, also includes 36 acres zoned for agriculture, including 14 acres fronting the mauka side of Farrington Highway. Another 15 acres are zoned for preservation use.

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MA 'O was established nearly 25 years ago to address economic and social challenges faced by youth in Waianae as part of the nonprofit Waianae Community Redevelopment Corp.

co-founded by Kukui and Gary Maunakea-Forth. The farm's name is an acronym for mala 'ai 'opio, meaning "youth garden." Some of the things the nonprofit provides include internships for high school students, college scholarships and full-time employment opportunities that continue to expand.

The farm produces over 100 tons of organic vegetables and fruit annually for grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets and other customers. In 2021, MA 'O's annual revenue exceeded $1 million for the first time.

Expansion of the farm operation has been gradual, and grew from an initial 5-acre plot of leased land to 24 acres a decade later. After another expansion to 45 acres in Lualualei Valley, MA 'O bought an adjacent 236 acres of fallow land in 2019 to continue growth and also embarked on building a state-of-the-art post-harvest processing facility partly using $11.5 million in financing secured in 2020 from 27 organizations, agencies and individuals.

The addition now of 249 acres comes close to doubling MA 'O's previous land base totaling 281 acres.

The Weinberg Foundation is a Baltimore-based nonprofit established by real estate and business investor Harry Weinberg, who operated in Hawaii for many years and died in 1990 as a near-billionaire with major local real estate assets. Since then the foundation has made charitable contributions totaling more than $350 million to benefit the poor and vulnerable in Hawaii.

Five years ago, at a time when almost half of the foundation's then-$2.7 billion value was represented by its Hawaii real estate portfolio, foundation leaders initiated an effort to gradually diversify assets by selling a significant portion of its Hawaii property that includes retail and industrial property leased to tenants as well as land long slated for urban development.

The Makaha Valley land was once part of an original vision by local business tycoon Chinn Ho about 70 years ago to establish a resort on 3, 000 acres stretching from the mountains to the beach in Makaha that had long been part of a sugar cane plantation.

Ho's plan, which had been described as the future Palm Springs of Hawaii and a ranch resort retreat with 10, 000 homes and hotel units, resulted only in a relatively small piece being realized in the form of two golf courses, a hotel and some homes.

The hotel was razed in 2014 after closing in 1995, and one golf course has been closed for decades.

In 2016, Canadian golf course firm Pacific Links International announced plans to develop a hotel, timeshare units and homes on 644 acres it had acquired in the valley, then in 2019 announced that golf superstar Tiger Woods would revive one closed golf course with a new design while Gil Hanse Golf Course Design would reconstruct the existing Makaha Valley Country Club.

Pacific Links and its local partner, Stanford Carr Development, also anticipated discussing the possibility of making an arrangement with the Weinberg Foundation to incorporate the foundation's 249 acres of land, which largely borders the shuttered golf course property on the valley's north side, into the master plan for resort development.

However, Pacific Links filed for bankruptcy in 2021, and its development plan fizzled.

Marisa Hayase, managing director of Hawaii programs and communications for the Weinberg Foundation, said in a statement that the organization is excited to see MA 'O make use of the Makaha Valley parcels it has received.

Hayase also encouraged philanthropic, government, business and community partners to support MA 'O's plans for the property.

"MA 'O's mission of addressing the root causes of poverty aligns with ours, and the team has demonstrated that investing in a Native Hawaiian values-led organization with a generational commitment to the land and community will help Hawaii thrive, " Hayase said.