Lahaina Maui, Hi - New Drone Tour & Updates - Nov. 2025

Aloha everyone. So it's been more than four months since I shared a full aerial update of Lahaina and just from driving around town you can see there's been a ton of progress in the residential areas with literally hundreds of homes being rebuilt right now. So I'm really curious to see what Lahaina looks like from the air almost two years and three months after the fire. Let's get the drone up and go take a look. Oh and by the way yeah behind me in the background that's the banyan tree and I'm happy to report that it's looking very healthy. All right so as I always do in my Lahaina drone updates we're going to start on the far south end of Lahaina town in the Pouamana area. Now I have released several drone updates of Lahaina since the fire and I do try to keep the path I follow consistent so you can easily compare the progress from one video to the next. The flight path we'll be taking is going to follow the coastline from the south end of Lahaina to the north end before we circle back a little bit further inland so you can see the whole town. We'll also take a separate flight that'll follow Lahaina Lunar Road all the way to the top of the burn zone and back down the hill following the Kahoma stream. And as always I'll provide timestamps in the description below in case you want to jump to the area that is the most interest to you. But to get the full update you will want to watch the entire video. We're now coming up on the start of the area that was impacted by the fire here in the Pouamana neighborhood. The buildings in this townhome community that were not impacted by the fire are being occupied once again. However I don't see much evidence of rebuilding starting here yet other than one oceanfront building that we already passed. Okay we're about to fly over the start of Front Street on the south end and we're entering into a single-family home neighborhood. This is where we're going to start to see a lot of the residential structures being rebuilt. So while we're here let's go over some of the permitting and rebuild statistics that are shown on the As of October 27, 2025 there's been 478 residential permits issued in Lahaina. And out of those 478 that have been issued 76 residential buildings have officially been completed already. There are currently another 295 homes that are under construction right now and another 186 residential permits that are being processed and should be issued soon. I know that's a lot of different numbers to throw at you but the bottom line is that we're making really good progress with the residential rebuild in Lahaina. Momentum seems to be picking up and I am confident that we will have 100 homes rebuilt by the end of this year. Coming up on the left-hand side of the screen you see a mid-rise building that's right on the beachfront. That is Lahaina Shores condominium complex and if you've been watching my previous videos you already know that Lahaina Shores has officially reopened for business and the community is looking great. I'll drop a link in the description below to some of my current listings at Lahaina Shores in case you're curious to see what the property looks like on the inside. With asking prices at Lahaina Shores down about 35 percent compared to pre-fire values, I do think it's one of the best deals on the entire island. Okay we're now approaching the Lahaina Harbor area and we will fly right over the banyan tree as we head back towards Front Street. Now the banyan tree has become a symbol of Lahaina's resilience after the fire so I know a lot of people are very happy to see the tree is thriving once again. We'll also be flying right next to the Lahaina Courthouse which was unfortunately gutted by the fire. This building was originally built around the year 1860 and it's one of eight historic buildings that the Lahaina Restoration Foundation plans to restore. It's expected that just the courthouse alone will cost around 7.1 million dollars to restore with construction scheduled to start in 2028 and finish in 2029. We're now in the commercial area over Front Street. The building standing on the mountain side of Front Street is the old Fleetwood building. Now almost all of Lahaina has been reopened to local traffic except for this particular area. The reason for this is that the county is still working on the infrastructure including street railings, sidewalks, and some seawall repairs. Estimated completion of that project isn't until July of 2026 so we know we do have quite a bit of time before all of Front Street is fully opened up again. And really we're still in the planning phase of the commercial area rebuild. About a month ago there was an open house at the Cannery Mall to present some of the street for feedback. The focus of planning so far appears to be an emphasis on pedestrian-friendly and more connected streets while preserving historic character. More public spaces and more resilient infrastructure upgrades are also a few of the priorities. Okay we're now heading back into a residential area as we pass the intersection of Front Street and Baker Street. If you look closely you can see that construction has started on a few of the oceanfront lots in this area. And this is a huge milestone for Lahaina as the oceanfront homes have been the last residential properties to receive permits up to this point. Now we're coming up on the Baby Beach neighborhood and we'll continue to follow the coastline heading north. Now you will notice a few homes under construction in this area which is a great sign but we'll see a lot more progress when we go into the Waihakuli and Lahainaluna neighborhoods later in the video. We're now about to fly over the Lahaina Johto Mission and if you look closely you can see the giant Buddha statue that survived the fire. Just past the Buddha you can see Mala Wharf and Boat Ramp and if you look to the very top of the screen you can see Kanapali way off in the distance. Don't forget to hit the like button if you appreciate these updates and if you haven't already subscribe to the channel for more updates in the future. Subscribing really is one of the best ways to support the channel and if you really want to support the work that I do on these videos consider joining as a member. I'll share a link to the membership options in the description below. We're now passing the Kahoma Stream and starting to fly over a portion of Front Street that survived the fire. Starting with the old Lahaina Luo on the ocean side of Front Street, the Cannery Mall on the mountain side, and several restaurants like Mala, Star Noodle, Honu, and the brand new Coco Deck Lahaina open for business in this area. Now we're getting back into a more residential area on Front Street. Since this neighborhood is closer to the ocean they did have to wait longer for permits which is why you don't see as many homes built in this area. On the ocean side of Front Street you see the Lahaina Roads condominium complex and even though it's not in hotel slash resort zoning like Lahaina Shores, short-term rentals are still currently allowed at Lahaina Roads. But it is one of the properties that could be impacted by the controversial Bill 9 here on Maui that if passed in its current form would phase out short-term rentals that operate in apartment zoning just like Lahaina Roads. Okay from here we're going to jump across the highway and into the Waiakuli neighborhood. This is where we'll start to see a much higher concentration of homes being rebuilt. Another key milestone that won't be shown in this video is that just this past month in October the remaining truckloads of ash and debris from the Lahaina Fire have been transported from the temporary debris storage site in Oluwalu to the permanent disposal site in the central Maui landfill. Now in my last video I mentioned there was hope that the wildfire lawsuit settlement could be finalized and first payments sent to wildfire survivors by the end of this year. But now that we're already in November that doesn't seem likely so now we're hopeful that the timeline doesn't slip past early 2026. And when that first payment is sent it could help to increase the speed of Lahaina's recovery because there will be more than four billion dollars in relief that will be paid to the fire victims by the wildfire lawsuit settlement. We're now coming to the end of the burn zone on the northern side of Lahaina town. So we'll spin around and start to head back a little bit further up the hillside this time. Right above the old Waiakuli neighborhood you can see the temporary housing sites that were provided by FEMA and the state of Hawaii. I'm going to show you a better perspective of those temporary housing sites in about a minute. When we reach the end of the Waiakuli neighborhood heading in this direction I'll spin around take a look up the hillside and give you a closer look at those buildings. Now we have had a very dry year so far here on the west side of Maui with very little rain. In fact the PGA tournament of champions that is held just to the north of Lahaina in the Kapalua area had to cancel the tournament this year due to drought conditions at the golf course. Unfortunately this will be a hit to the local economy as the tournament has been held on Maui in Kapalua for 26 years dating back to 1999 and it brings an estimated 50 million dollars over the course of just a few days. However it was recently announced that the PGA will not be moving the tournament of champions to a different location this year. It will just be canceled and hopefully that means that there's a better chance that it will return to Kapalua next year. And with that being said we have gotten more rain recently. When you look up the mountainside you do see that the vegetation has turned from yellow to green and a little bit later in the video I'll show you an area in the middle of Lahaina that looks like a little oasis of green. Okay as we reach the end of the neighborhood I'm going to spin the camera to look up the mountainside as I promised earlier. This gives you the better perspective of the temporary housing sites that are just above the Waiakule neighborhood. Okay from here we're going to jump across the highway again and continue our path heading south. Right now we're flying right over the top of the Cannery Mall parking lot and we're coming up on some commercial construction sites that were actually planned before the fire. There is a Bank of Hawaii branch that just opened here and a restaurant called Fork and Salad that offers quick convenient farm-to-table cuisine. We're now flying over the Coahoma Stream and coming up on the Coahoma Village neighborhood. This is the neighborhood that I lived in at the time of the fire and most of the homes here did survive the fire with the exception of a few townhomes right in the middle of the community. As you can see there's been some really good progress in rebuilding those buildings and it looks like they're nearing completion already. Okay from here we're going to jump ahead a little ways and we'll start a new flight where we're going to follow Lahaina Luna Road all the way up the hillside into the Lahaina Luna neighborhood. We're starting from the coastline again and we're now flying over the area that held popular restaurants like Kimo's, Cheeseburger in Paradise, and the Lahaina Yacht Club. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Cheeseburger in Paradise will reopen in its same location as just last week they posted an update to their Facebook account that said it appears highly unlikely they'll be allowed to rebuild at their original location on the ocean side of Front Street. Okay we're now coming up on the old Pioneer Mill smokestack and just past the smokestack is the area where they collected burnt cars and broke down large pieces of concrete and steel from the ash and debris removal. As you can see the area has now been completely cleaned up. We're now coming up on the Lahaina Luna neighborhood and notice the wooden poles that are holding up the overhead power lines in this area. It was poorly maintained power lines that were knocked down by strong winds that was another major factor that caused a huge fire. In fact it was a downed power line in this actual neighborhood that created the initial spark that started the fire. Well we recently received some really good news in that regard as it was announced that Hawaii Electric does plan to bury power lines in this area. Approximately 2.5 miles of power lines along Lahaina Luna Road are going to be placed underground. We're now approaching the highest point that was affected by the fire in Lahaina Luna. So we're going to turn around and start heading back down the hillside. This time we're going to follow the Kohoma Stream. As you can see for yourself this particular area does have a very high concentration of homes that are currently being rebuilt. Oh and straight ahead on the other side of the Kohoma Stream you see another mid-rise building. That building is an affordable apartment complex that was lost during the fire and is now nearly completely reconstructed. By the way if you'd like to receive even more consistent updates on Lahaina's recovery feel free to also follow me on my Instagram and Facebook pages. That's where I share more short-form updates that you just won't see here on YouTube. I'll share links to them in the description below. To give you a point of reference we're now flying right over the Kohoma Mai Street which is in the Kohoma Homes neighborhood. And just across the Kohoma Stream from here is where you'll find the Emerald Plaza commercial area. Okay straight ahead on the left hand side of the stream is the Opakea at Lahaina condominium complex. And on the right hand side of the stream is the Ho'onanea condominium complex. We're going fly right over the top of those communities to give you a better perspective. As you can see Ho'onanea here did have a few buildings that were lost to the fire but reconstruction has already begun on both of those buildings. And as we cross the stream once again we're going to be coming right over the top of Opakea at Lahaina. Again a few of the buildings here were lost to the fire but as you can see at least one of them has had some significant progress in the rebuild. We're now flying right over the top of Limahana Place and passing the area that held the Mind's Eye interior and the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell building that was right on the highway. This is where you would have found the popular dive bar called the Slime Mongoose and the pawn shop as well. And finally at the end of the cul-de-sac is where the Sugar Cane Train food truck park was located prior to the fire. Okay this is where we're going to jump back across the highway and we'll finish the tour by following Wai'ne'e Street all the way to the south end of Lahaina. We just crossed over the intersection of Wai'ne'e and Lahaina Luna and we're coming up on the Maria Lanakila Catholic Church which has already been reopened for almost a year now. Just past the church is the intersection at Dickinson Street and Wai'ne'e and just past the intersection on the left hand side of the screen is where the Aina Nalu Condo Complex was located prior to the fire. This is also the area in the middle of Lahaina that I mentioned earlier in the video that has a lot of green vegetation that appears to be growing naturally which is a really good sign after such a dry year. The big square wall in the middle of screen now is where the old Lahaina Prison once stood before the fire and the prison is another historical site that Lahaina Restoration Foundation plans to restore in the near future. Okay as we come to the end of the tour let me know in the comment section what you think of the progress now that you've been able to see it with your own eyes. To me personally it looks like a lot of good things are happening in town and I'm very hopeful that we can continue to maintain and even increase the pace of reconstruction. With that being said I am disappointed that the commercial areas on Front Street have not even begun to rebuild yet. It's always my goal to keep it 100% real with everyone that watches my videos so if I'm completely honest I do have mixed emotions after seeing the progress in this video. I'm very happy to see so many homes are already being rebuilt but it is clear that we still have a lot of work ahead of us and it looks likely that it'll be several years before we see significant progress in the rebuilding of businesses here in Lahaina. Thanks for watching the video all the way to the end. If you haven't already make sure to share this video with anyone you know who wants to stay informed on Lahaina's recovery progress. I hope to see you all on the next video. Aloha.