Kukaniloko Stewardship Services

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) is requesting proposals for stewardship services at the Kukaniloko Birthstones State Historic Site in Wahiawa, Hawaii, under RFP LAD 2027-002, with proposals due September 1, 2026, and a mandatory site visit on August 14, 2026. Offerors must demonstrate five years of prior stewardship or curatorship experience with a state entity and be established within the Wahiawa community for five or more years.

Core services include stewardship planning aligned with OHA's values of Hoomana (Protection & Sanctification), Hoona'auao (Education & Connection), and Hooulu Aina (Agriculture and Ecological Restoration); access management and visitor coordination; development and implementation of cultural place-based education programs; grounds maintenance including landscaping, invasive vegetation control, and debris removal; and maintenance of the traditional Hawaiian hale on approximately 400 meters of grounds centered on the Birthstones. Qualifications must include experience with cultural and educational programming, native plant restoration, preservation regulations, and demonstrated relationships with the Kukaniloko and Wahiawa communities. Offerors must be registered to do business in Hawaii and comply with wage certification requirements under HRS 103-55, with employee wages not less than those paid to state employees performing similar work.

The contract is structured as cost-reimbursement on a not-to-exceed basis, with OHA reimbursing actual incurred costs including personnel salaries, wages, medical benefits, payroll taxes, liability insurance, and other direct expenses. Core services pricing shall be submitted as a monthly flat rate; additional stewardship project services as fully-loaded hourly rates for program/project lead and field/support labor; and materials, supplies, and equipment for projects reimbursed separately at actual documented cost without markup. The initial contract term is twenty-four months with optional extensions of up to twenty-four months each, not to exceed sixty months total, anticipated to commence in September 2026.

Evaluation is weighted as service delivery approach (30 points), experience and qualifications (30 points), price (25 points), references (10 points), and commitment to minority/women business enterprise participation (5 points). Questions are due August 17, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. HST. Site visit registration forms are due August 13, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. HST.