June 12, 2015
PBN panel talks business on Windward Oahu: Slideshow
The panelists and crowd at PBN’s Windward Oahu Means Business event Friday in Kailua agreed that while a hotel and high-rise condominiums are unwanted in Kailua, the community needs to manage its growing popularity with visitors.
The sold-out crowd packed the main dining room at at Mid Pacific Country Club to hear the panel of experts discuss the issues facing business in Kailua and Kaneohe. Click on the photos for a slideshow.
Jon Moyer, direct of asset management at A&B Properties — a subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin, which bought much of Kailua town from Kaneohe Ranch in 2013 — said the company is trying to preserve the character of Kailua, and thinks high-rises don’t fit in that picture. In regards to business, Moyer is hearing interest from businesses in other parts of Oahu and the Neighbor Islands that want to open a location in Kailua town.
On the topic of a hotel on the Windward side, the panelists and the crowd said it wouldn’t be a good idea.
Cynthia Manley, president of the Kailua Chamber of Commerce and director of public relations at Le Jardin Academy, said there’s no guarantee that a hotel would alleviate the problem.
Lindsey Dymond, owner of Kalapawai Market and Cafe, acknowledged that people want to come and stay here, so it will be up to community to figure it out.
“If we let it happen, it will manage us,” he said. “If we take a proactive stance, we can manage it.”
John Morgan, president of Kualoa Ranch, said everyone in the room knows tourism is the economic driver of Hawaii but said traffic is a problem. He said nearly half of the visitors that come to Oahu drive around the island, and of those, two-thirds go clockwise. He discussed creating a scenic corridor going the other way, which would have benefits for Windward Oahu businesses from Makapuu to the North Shore.
On the topic of doing business in Kailua, Drew Santos, store team leader atTarget’s Kailua store noted the store has created 300 jobs for people in the community who no longer have to commute into Honolulu.
Alex Harris, senior program officer for education at the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, spoke about some of the ways that has been working with local schools to increase graduation rates.
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2015/06/12/pbn-panel-talks-business-on-windward-oahu.html
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