Wailuku's landmark Ooka Supermarket sells property
By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor
WAILUKU, Maui — Maui's old-time retail community is losing one of its giants.
The family that owns Ooka Supermarket in Wailuku has sold its 1.3-acre site to the Community Clinic of Maui and eventually will close the store to make way for a new nonprofit health center for low-income residents and the homeless.
The project is several years away and the store will remain open in the meantime as a tenant of the new property owner, said president Byron Ooka, who took over the business from his mother, Barbara Ooka, who died May 2 at age 77.
He declined yesterday to comment on why the family decided to close the landmark store, which opened in 1941 and is one of Maui's largest and oldest family-owned groceries. Its employs about 85 workers.
Three months ago, it was announced that Ooka Supermarket Ltd. had been awarded $9.1 million in federal and state low-income housing tax credits to develop Lokenani Gardens, a 61-unit affordable rental project for senior citizens that was planned for vacant property near the store that is now used as a makeshift parking lot.
At the time, Ooka said the family saw the project as "an opportunity to invest in the community."
Community Clinic of Maui executive director Dana Howeth said the property was acquired with interim financing from the National Cooperative Bank Development Corp., pending a final commitment on a $2.35 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The clinic also will receive an additional $2.5 million from the federal Health Resources Service Administration for improvements to the 36,000-square-foot building and site. Additional federal funds are expected in the form of a Community Development Block Grant administered by the county.
In a joint statement, Ooka and clinic officials said there is no specific timetable for the transition from supermarket to health clinic, which will occur as public and private funds become available.
However, Howeth said the first phase of the project should be completed and open within five years. It will consist of approximately 17,000 square feet of space for examining rooms, a pharmacy, a laboratory and offices. A dental clinic is envisioned as part of the second phase, and additional office space and other uses are planned for phase three.
The Community Clinic of Maui employs 61 workers and is based in a 6,293-square-foot building on Lono Avenue in Kahului. The organization has smaller offices at the Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center in Wailuku and at the Lahaina Comprehensive Health Center.
Last year the clinic and its related offices provided medical care to more than 7,000 clients who made an estimated 25,000 visits to its facilities, according to the release.
"Our new location will put us close to the hospital, enable us to participate in the revitalization of Wailuku town and allow us to assist an even greater number of low-income Mauians," Howeth said. "We think it's a godsend to be located next to the proposed new senior housing and we look forward to being an active part of the Wailuku community."
