Leasehold Properties: A Deal or a Drain?
While most of the state’s leasehold single-family properties have converted to fee simple ownership over the past few decades, the leasehold option remains alive in the condo market.
Search Results for: family business
Training the Workers of Tomorrow
Did you get all the way through high school and college without actually learning about a potential career and test driving it? Did your college courses have little connection with what you learned in high school? If you answered yes…
Aloha Medical Mission Heals the Poor in the Philippines
For a week in February, a team of 28 volunteers helped heal some of the poorest people in Tuguegarao and the surrounding region of the Philippines. The visitors from Hawaii’s Aloha Medical Mission and their local partners saw 1,300 patients, performed 22…
Best Places to Work in Hawaii 2014
The list is based on a confidential survey of employees and an extensive questionnaire about benefits and working conditions. Large Companies (250 or More Hawaii Employees) No. 1 HawaiiUSA FCU U.S. Headquarters: Honolulu www.hawaiiusafcu.com Employees: 322 (Hawaii) This credit union…
20 for the Next 20: People to Watch 2014
Welcome to the Class of 2014. Kamana Beamer Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa Age: 37 Kamana Beamer says there were two defining moments in his life. The first was his parents’ divorce when he was…
Talk Story with the Neighbor Island Mayors
2014 appears to be a crucial year for the Neighbor Islands. The future of agriculture is being passionately debated, tourism is at a crossroads, and the sources of county revenue are up in the air. Hawaii Business interviewed the three Neighbor Island…
Editor's Note: Instead of Gambling, Win Big By Saving Money
Why do families end up homeless? One big reason is they have no savings, so when a crisis hits – getting laid off or paying a big bill – they don’t have a couple thousand dollars in the bank to…
Entrepreneurs Inspired by the Ocean
It’s no surprise the same ocean that inspires surfers, paddlers and swimmers has also inspired entrepreneurs to make a living off what they love. They start surf schools, design canoe paddles, cultivate marine livestock, run fishing charters or develop technology…
13 Great Things About Waikiki (Plus 13 Awful Things)
A Hawaii Business team of four reporters, four photographers and four interpreters (two Chinese, one Japanese and one Korean) invaded Waikiki. We asked tourists, workers and business owners what they liked and didn’t like about the tourist mecca, and here are the…
Waikiki Present and Future - Extended Version
Panelists: W. David P. Carey III: President and CEO, Outrigger Enterprises Group Rick Egged: President, Waikiki Improvement Association Eric Gill: Financial Secretary-Treasurer, Unite Here Local 5 Hawaii Ernest “Ernie” K. Nishizaki: Executive VP, Kyo-Ya Co. LLC George D. Szigeti: President…
Homelessness in Waikiki
Many of Waikiki’s Homeless Are Mainland Snowbirds Just as tourists trade the cold winters of Minneapolis, Seattle and other cities for the warmth of Waikiki, so do another group of visitors. “There are homeless people who come here in the…
International Market Place Closes
The old International Market Place is dead. For more than 50 years, tourists flocked there, drawn to the warren of cheap jewelry stores, kiosks selling kitschy bric-a-brac and the romance of the original Don the Beachcomber restaurant, which opened there…
Taking Risks: Aloha Edition
“Have I got enough rope to hang myself with here?” Venture capitalist Timothy Dick jokes about the length of the microphone cord as he stands in front of 100 entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be at the Waikiki Yacht Club. Dick came to…
Tealet: Startup in a Cup
When you think of innovative startups, what usually comes to mind are tech companies that create something new – a mini-revolution. Instead of high-tech, think about tea, one of the oldest drinks on the planet. That’s what Elyse Petersen does:…
Talk Story with Tyler Tokioka, Island Insurance
The president of one of the largest charitable foundations in the state talks about how and why corporations give the way they do. Why would a company like Island Insurance create a foundation rather than just give directly to charity? Before, a…
Maui's Got Game
Long-running college basketball tournament scores bonus points for local businesses For 30 years, Maui businesses have had something extra to be grateful for at Thanksgiving: the Maui Invitational basketball tournament. It lures about 5,000 visitors during Thanksgiving week and provides…
Rehab Hospital of the Pacific Reinvents Itself
Restoration is a slow and sometimes painful process for people whose bodies have been battered by strokes, car crashes and other calamities. Helping those people regain their basic skills and abilities is the main goal of the Rehabilitation Hospital of the…
Mission to Mars via Mauna Loa
Faced with a problem that’s literally out of this world, scientists went looking for a solution on an isolated part of Mauna Loa. Astronauts who eat the same freeze-dried and dehydrated options day after day tend to suffer from “menu…
All of Hawaii's Eight Gecko Species are Nonnative
Geckos are iconic in Hawaiʻi, as much as pineapples or ukuleles, and, like them, are not native to the Islands. The Polynesians brought them here about 1,500 years ago along with other plants and animals.
Editor's Note: Does God Believe in Gay Marriages?
My wife says I’m crazy for taking on this subject and she’s right. The reasons for caution are endless: I’m no theologian; passions are running high; I have friends and family with strong views on both sides; this is a…
Which Ethnic Group Makes the Most Money?
If you have lived in Hawaii for a while, the ranking of the richest and poorest ethnic groups shouldn’t surprise you. The hierarchy has remained the same for the past four decades, says UH ethnic studies professor Jonathan Okamura, who…
How Fashion Happens in Hawaii
PHOTOS BY MARK ABEIT When people think about the fashion business, they tend to focus on the designer’s creative ideas and the finished products they buy. The beginning and the end. But it takes a great deal of work…
Building Bridges to China
Chinese companies and individuals are investing tens of billions of dollars in America. Here’s how Hawaii businesses and nonprofits are creating relationships with their Chinese counterparts and working to get a share of those investments, with varying degrees of success.…
The Rise of Kau Coffee
Loreto “Lorie” Obra and her husband, Restituto “Rusty” Obra, were unlikely coffee farmers. They had emigrated from the Philippines to New Jersey in 1972 to begin their careers, Rusty as a chemist and Lorie as a medical technologist. However, while…