Funded by the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the Pono Center, next to the Iao Theater in Wailuku town, opened last fall.

Reconstructed out of an aging plantation-era shop, the three-story orange colored building along Market Street houses a Cafe O'Lei restaurant, Lokahi's shared-use rental licensed commercial kitchen, "incubator" office space and other business amenities as well as special housing units.

So far only one business is utilizing the facilities offered by the incubator office and only two clients have used the commercial kitchen.

But Pono Center Manager Sharon Castillo and Mokihana Kahula, kitchen manager, hope to change that.

With the help of the Maui County Business Resource Center, there will be a free informational workshop and tour of the kitchen facilities on Thursday.

"Our hearts' desire is to have the commercial kitchen busy, the incubator offices busy," said Castillo on Friday as she sat in the building's conference room, which is also available for use.

"The mission is to nurture small business start-up."

The building's first floor street front space is occupied by Cafe O'Lei, the popular restaurant that returned to Wailuku to support the center and is providing training opportunities as well as utilizing a part of the commercial kitchen.

On the second floor is Lokahi's affordable rental housing for those with disabilities. It has four one-bedroom apartments, a laundry facility and storage area. The units are already full.

The building's third floor houses the shared office space, conference room and training center, with support services including copier, fax machine and wireless Internet.

Kahula said the commercial kitchen is open to various users, such as nonprofit groups needing a place to cook or bake for fundraisers, food processors needing a place to prepare and cook and even the average person who wants to prepare goods to sell.

"There is a lot of people who want to prepare stuff, but they don't have a certified kitchen," Kahula said.

The kitchen can also be used for training kitchen staff. It is equipped with two work stations, refrigerators, stoves, ovens, grills, freezers and a commercial mixer.

Users must bring their own tools and cooking gear and need to attend workshops mandated by the state Department of Health as well as follow guidelines.

Kahula said the Pono staff can help businesses and the public in arranging the mandatory classes.

Lokahi is still working out rental costs for the kitchen but Kahula said an eight-hour day in the kitchen could cost about $160.

For an incubator office, rent could be $300 to $400 a month and depends on the size of the office as well as a person's needs, Castillo said.

Castillo said Lokahi hopes to conduct training seminars at the building and has plans for a small business resource library.

Maui County, which owns the site as part of the Iao Theater complex, introduced the concept of a business incubator building in 1999 as an element in a plan to revitalize Wailuku's business district. In response to the county's request for proposal, Lokahi developed a project to reconstruct the dilapidated building last used by Blue Hawaii Realty.

The original building was built in the 1920s. It was demolished, but the new building's facade reflects the original building. The new center has 9,700 square feet of space and cost about $4 million. In addition to Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation funding, the center also received money from by county, state and federal government agencies.

The county has granted Lokahi Pacific a 30-year lease at $1 a year to facilitate the building's redevelopment and operations.

Castillo said the Pono Center is named after former Lokahi Pacific Managing Director Jo-Ann Ridao's grandson, Pono Viela. Pono died in 2004, at the age of 3, when an all-terrain vehicle on which he was riding as a passenger overturned. Ridao is now the county's housing commissioner.

In Hawaiian, pono also means goodness and excellence.