Can This Venerable Makiki Heights Home Be Transformed Into A Filmmaking Hub? … A new and networked nonprofit seeks to raise $15 million to buy Spalding House from the Honolulu Museum of Art.
It started over a meal at Merriman’s in Honolulu in late January 2020, as things sometimes do.
Meeting a few months after the Honolulu Museum of Art put its historic Spalding House property on the market for $15 million, film festival director Jeannette Paulson Hereniko was introduced to realtor-broker Sarah Bakewell just two months before Covid-19 began to ravage Hawaii.
Hereniko, whose many hats include founding the Hawaii International Film Festival in 1981 and serving as HIFF’s director for the next 15 years, wondered whether Spalding House, nestled in Makiki Heights, could be converted into a hub for local filmmakers rather than sold as a luxury private residence.
