Waipahu merchants sense hope
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
WAIPAHU — The "W" on the former Big Way Super Market sign is missing and the letters have faded. The interior has that abandoned look of so many symbols of Waipahu's century-long plantation past.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
Like Arakawa's, across Waipahu Depot Road, Big Way pulled up stakes not long after the Waipahu Sugar Mill shut down in 1995. That closing began an economic nosedive that has left the community with a 6.5 percent unemployment rate and a 25.5 percent poverty rate.
Business owners, from left, Luz Ocenar, Isaac Ocenar, Willsie Scott and Lena Duck are among those who could benefit when the old Big Way Super Market in Waipahu is transformed into the Waipahu Festival Market and Business Incubator in 2005.
But folks here are starting to notice positive signs from a community revitalization plan launched six years ago.
On Thursday the Waipahu Community Association picked up a check for $1.25 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Association to be used to transform the old Big Way Building into the Waipahu Festival Market and Business Incubator.
It is estimated that the business incubator will create some 240 quality jobs, primarily for immigrant groups, within two years after its 2005 completion date.
"Things are really starting to happen right now," said Darrlyn Bunda, executive director of the Waipahu Community Association. "We're coming alive and the community is rallying. The whole thing is to revitalize Waipahu as a desirable place to do business, live and prosper."
Among other recent successes, the $14 million Filipino Community Center, which opened in 2002, is a source of community pride, and a Weed and Seed policing program is helping to reduce crime.
Bunda said the money her association got matches an amount it received last year from the City and County of Honolulu, as well as $748,000 in federal economic development initiative money before that.
"The Waipahu Community Association approached us for some help in getting a grant for this" incubator, said Michael Slackman, communications director for U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i.
Merchants in the incubator will have access to a network of legal, governmental, licensing and marketing resources. The incubator also will provide job training.
One person who's interested in applying is Lena Duck, who operates Lucna's Rice Cakes & Catering on Waipahu Depot Road, a short distance from the Big Way building.
"I would like to have my own space at the incubator," Duck said.
Mel Tanioka, owner of Tanioka's Sea Foods and Catering at 94-903 Farrington Highway, is also sold on the idea.
Tanioka said he is applying to open a sushi and catering business at the Festival Market as a way to expand his business, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Tanioka has around 100 employees. But there's room for more.
"The whole idea is to increase employment opportunities in the area," Tanioka said. "This is something that could really stimulate the economy."
Tanioka envisions the business incubator as an open marketplace with food and vegetable vendors.
There will be residual benefits to other types of operations, said Isaac Ocenar, who runs graphics and import businesses on Waipahu Depot Road and in the Filipino Community Center on Mokuola Street.
The beauty of the Festival Market is that it benefits not only those who are directly associated with it, but nearby businesses such as his own, Ocenar said.
"Just think of it," he said. "Anybody who goes into that incubator is going to be starting a business. We do T-shirts, signs and graphics. So we can accommodate everyone there."
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Correction: The U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Association awarded a $1.25 million grant to the Waipahu Community Association. A previous version of this story named a different government office.
