ByGeorge F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Indigo waiter Aaron Samples serves Ellen and Tom Matthews
after an evening at Hawaii Theatre. They and other theatergoers
are boosting evening business downtown.

It's a three-block walk to the Chinatown restaurant, which stays open until 10 p.m. weekdays, 2 a.m. weekends to accommodate theater patrons.

A number of other downtown eateries are enjoying the theater's new traffic, among them the adjacent Indigo Eurasian Cuisine, Cafe Che Pasta, A Little Bit of Saigon, and the just-opened Centaur Zone Cafe and Net.

But the old theater and its tired neighborhood have a ways to go in the quest for downtown revitalization. Most of downtown remains dark at night despite an estimated half-million square feet of available retail space. And crime is a major concern in Chinatown.

"Progress is slow, but every day it gets a little bit better," said Sarah Richards, executive director of Hawaii Theatre Center. "It doesn't just change overnight."

The historic theater - tawdry outside despite a $28 million renovation inside - sits in a neighborhood of tattered and boarded-up properties.

Drugs, prostitution, and homeless drifters worry merchants and property owners.

"Until we get that cleared up, a whole lot of businesses won't come downtown," said Lynn Matusow, chairman of the Downtown Neighborhood Board.

But Bill Joor, a commercial real estate broker and member of the Hawaii Theatre Center board, predicts the area will be hopping in three to five years.

"It's very predictable because of what's happened in other cities," he said. "And Hawaii Theatre is way ahead of schedule in terms of what our projections were for the number of performances."

He cites Columbus, Ohio, where renovation of the Ohio Theatre in the 1960s attracted new businesses and scared away loiterers.

One piece of unfinished business is the theater's threadbare exterior and makeshift entry. Opened in May despite the unfinished work, the building still needs a formal entry, a marquee, and a paint job.

Richards said it will cost $2 million to finish the job, a project on the back burner for lack of funds.

Downtown property owners and merchants hope the area will escape its blemished past as the theater attracts patrons - and new businesses.

At the nearby Cafe Metro, on the Fort Street Mall, operators plan to extend business hours next month to tap into night events at the theater.

"We're aiming to pick up at least 50 customers a night," said Denise Ramirez, restaurant manager.

But Ramirez says the area needs some sprucing. "It's a little scary, but we've put a lot of lighting around our store. And hopefully, with the added police around here, we'll be able to make the customers feel secure."

Less optimistic is Don Murphy, owner of Murphy's Bar & Grill on Merchant Street.

"We've still got a ways to go. I still think people are leery about coming down here and parking at night. My restaurant's been broken into seven times in past 10 years, and my cars are constantly being broken into."

Crime, scarce parking, and high property taxes make it tough to run a restaurant at night in his part of town, Murphy said.

One restaurant benefiting from theater crowds is the adjacent Indigo on Nuuanu Avenue.

"I think of the theater as the topping," said chef and part-owner Glenn Chu. "When there isn't anything going on at the theater, we're doing OK. When there's something going on at the theater, we're doing great."

But like other business operators in the neighborhood, Chu is concerned about it's image.

"One of the keys to the downtown area is looking at what we can do about the street people down here - the drug dealers, the prostitutes and the homeless."

Some steps have been taken to brighten the neighborhood. The Marks Center Garage on Pauahi Street, once a hangout for drug dealers, is now a clean, well-lit place. And more police on patrol, particularly on theater nights, has chased some bad elements away.

"I don't know, but Bethel Street's really safe to walk on now," said Matusow, who lives downtown. "Most of the people that used to hang out on Bethel street aren't there now. Some of them have moved to Nuuanu."

William Grant, former executive director of the defunct Downtown Improvement Association, said the theater is an important addition to the area, but not necessarily the key to revitalization.

"The theater itself is not an end in itself," he said. "It's part of a package of amenities that will naturally happen downtown as the population grows."

Glenn Mason, an architect and member of the Hawaii Theatre Center board, acknowledges that downtown's nightlife is somewhat dismal.

"We've got a lovely downtown, the core of downtown, but it is completely lifeless," he said. "Our downtown needs energy, no doubt about it."

But ten years ago, just one downtown restaurant, Wong-N-Wongs on Maunakea Street, was open for business at night, Mason said.

Today, there are at least ten, he said, and with new restaurants in the offing - Palomino Euro Bistro plans to open at Harbor Court next year - the number is growing.

Richards notes that a new coffee shop - Centaur Zone Cafe and Net - opened just this month a block up Bethel Street, and space in the Austin Building, which belongs to Hawaii Theatre Center, was recently leased for "an exciting new project."

"It's certainly more lively than it was, and it increasingly will get livelier," she said of the changing neighborhood. "We've had pretty good attendence down here - over 100,000 people have gone through the theater in the last seven months."

"Has the Hawaii Theatre dramatically changed downtown?" he asked. "No. Is it perhaps the first step towards changing downtown? I think there's no question that it is."