Waipahu's Filipino center showcases success
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The $14-million, three-story Filipino Community Center is next to the old Waipahu Sugar Mill.
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
When Eddie Flores Jr., president of L&L Drive-Inn, talks about the new Filipino Community Center in Waipahu, he thinks back to the day that he was part of the fund-raising rally for the project.
"I was in Waialua and this old man dressed in a puka shirt, shorts and slippers hands me $25," Flores said. "I told myself then 'we cannot fail.' "
On June 11, the dreams of generations of Hawai'i's third-largest ethnic group will officially become a reality with the dedication of the $14 million community center and three-story "The Bahay Harry and Jeanette Weinberg" building at 94-428 Mokuola St.
"It's the culmination of the dreams of Filipino immigrants, who came here looking for hope, and their wanting to succeed," said Eva Laird Smith, FilCom Center's executive director.
FilCom Center is not a cultural center and not just for Filipinos. It is a nonprofit set up to provide services to the whole community and to be self-supporting.
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To accomplish the second goal, 80 percent of its space is capable of generating income, said Flores, chairman of FilCom Center's board of directors.
Marylin Villar leads the way in teaching community members how to do the Tinikling Dance, a traditional Filipino dance, at the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu.
The center's debt is $1.25 million, a testament to the debt-servicing strategy implemented from the start by people like Flores and financier Roland Casamina.
"Statistically, Filipinos here and on the Mainland rank near the bottom in entrepreneurship," Flores said. "So who would think that Filipinos had the business sense to do this? We are proud to be Filipino, and this center is the impetus for us to showcase that Filipinos can be successful in business."
Situated between Hans L'Orange Park and the sugar mill smokestack in the heart of Waipahu's historic plantation town on two acres donated by AMFAC/ JMB, the FilCom Center's building looks like a Mediterranean villa.
It has the friendly appeal of "bahay," a Filipino word that connotes home or abode, and is the largest Filipino community center outside the Philippines. According to the 2000 Census, the 170,635 Filipinos here represent 14.1 percent of Hawai'i's population.
In the early years, the dream was to have a meeting place where Filipinos could gather and promote their culture and perhaps contain a museum. But in the early 1990s during the beginnings of Hawai'i's economic downturn, the focus shifted toward having a community-service center.
"We were studying other facilities and saw that in order to be viable, we had to run it like a business," said Flores, who got involved with the project as a Hawai'i Filipino Chamber of Commerce member.
The building, designed by Hawai'i Convention Center architects Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, is named for Harry and Jeanette Weinberg, who donated $3 million, and features 42,000 square feet of useable space.
The first-floor office spaces have been leased to a real estate broker, insurance agency, graphic/sign business and dental group.
A fifth office has been reserved for a yet-to-be-selected nonprofit group. The lease agreement is designed so each individual tenant business pays a base rent and its own operation expenses, such as utilities, said Flores.
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An open courtyard on the second floor is sandwiched between the 6,000-square-foot banquet hall, which can accommodate 450 people, and equally large technology center.
Roland Casamina is one of the project's financiers.
There's also business incubation spaces and plans for a commercial kitchen and thrift store.
A water fountain will be added to the courtyard, which is named Consuelo's Courtyard in honor of Consuelo Zobel Alger, a champion of orphans and abused children who donated $500,000, including a $200,000 endowment, to the center.
The courtyard can be rented for events, Flores noted.
The center is awaiting the release of $1.25 million from the Department of Commerce to build a commercial kitchen, which can be used by Leeward Community College students for cooking classes, Flores said.
The banquet hall is booked every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night from June 22 through the rest of the year, and for 50 weekend night events in 2003, said Lisa Juanillo, the center's booking specialist.
A healthy-start program administered by Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children will be set up on the third floor, where a small office has been reserved for FilCom Center staff.
A key to the center's success will be the drawing power of the different service programs.
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"I think we've learned that we need to be diversified," Laird Smith said. "We will offer a whole range of activities to service the community needs that goes beyond culture.
The center must be run like a business, Eddie Flores Jr. said.
"Our goals are cultural, economic, social and educational. We will perpetuate the culture of Filipinos, but we live in a complex world and want to provide for today and the needs of the new generation."
Hanapbuhay 2002 workshops on how to start a small business are scheduled every Wednesday night at the center from June 19 through July 31 conducted by local business people. It's the kind of program the center will offer.
"When we set up the thrift shop, each class that finishes the (Hanapbuhay) program will create a business plan and run the thrift shop," Flores said. "It's all hands-on training."
The center is working with the state Health Department on an alcohol and drug abuse outreach program with printed information in Ilocano and Tagalog.
Government grants have accounted for $4.1 million of total pledges for the project, Laird Smith said. Trusts and foundations have pledged $3.9 million while other monies have come from individual donors, corporations, and organizations and associations.
"Having good business people (on the board) who didn't want to start out in a hole gives us a big advantage and long-term sustainability," she said.
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
