You might want to get another to plant outdoors. Slow growers in the bay area- but beautiful palms. About 6" of trunk per year. I guess if you include the fiberous stem its more like 8" per year. Not 2 foot a year like a Fan palm or Queen,or 1' a year like a King palm,but Howea's are worth the wait.

Thanks palmbob and stanofh. Wow, after my Fiddle Leaf Fig trials, this almost sounds too good to be true! :-)

Whoops! Just realized that the indoor location I had in mind for Kentia is too narrow for this plant the way it is. Do you think the trunks inside the container can be separated? If it's too risky I can just find a new location though.

They can be. Sort of tease them apart instead of a knife cut. If you do- put one outdoors.

@stanofh thanks for your help. I ended up buying a second one that fits better into the place I originally had in mind. So now I am considering separating the original Howea (the one in the pic above) so that I can have them in more rooms and also outside. Just need to find a good spot outside for it. I haven't worked up the nerve to separate it yet though.

By the way, the soil that came in the pot is very dense feeling. It feels sandy-ish. Is this what you keep container palms in, or are you using something like a gritty mix?

Here's a tip for separating palms: pull the entire root mass out of the container, and submerge the entire root ball in water. You'll notice that the root ball will begin to lose its shape as the soil sinks to the bottom of the container. Then, like Stan said, slowly tease the roots apart, being careful not to damage them in the process. You can continue to dunk the root ball into the bucket of water to help you separate the individual root systems.

Kentias will do great in the bay area. I grew one for about 5 years in the Central Valley before a big freeze took it out, but it was an absolutely beautiful palm.

If it was a more vigorous palm species I would say to try separating them but I'm not sure if it's worth the transplant shock of separating them unless you definitely have to. Any amount of damage to palm roots will slow it down ever so much, a lot of damage could kill it. Most palms are very sensitive to root damage.
If you are in a USDA zone 9 you will get too cold long term for Kentia palms without helping it along on cold night, but there are parts of the bay area that are borderline 9b/10 which Kentias should do okay in (and some areas that are solid zone 10s where they absolutely thrive). There are at least one or 2 very nice ones on fishermans warf. They don't mind the chilly days and the lack of any frosts keep them happy!

Josue and tropicalzone7, thank you for your input. I am even more nervous about separating the Kentia now that I have noticed the leaves looking slightly less vibrant than they were when I bought it. I have it in a bright room with Northwest windows and French doors, but maybe 7 ft from the windows, against a wall with no windows. From everything I've read about Kentias I'm thinking the light level is fine, but perhaps the environment is too dry? I have watered it once when the soil was dry, but the soil seems to take a long time to dry out. Maybe I should be rotating this plant 1/4 turn every 1-2 weeks like I do with my Fiddle Leaf Figs?

I separated mine that was 3 to a pot in 1992. One died when I put it in a area that I left go dry too often,one was put back in a pot alone. The third went into the back yard and is now in total over 20'
I hedged my bets by trying three ways of growing them. Now? I wish I had planted all three in the backyard.
HD has them for $40.
One trivia about Howea's..I live near gopher habitat. It used to be small homes..no problem then. The old homes were knocked down making a large empty lot next to my home. After a few years gophers came in,ate all my old 20 year old reed palms,lady palms, small shaving brush palms,Bizmarckia...ignore the Howea and King palms. So,they are long term with any good care.