Posted on the North Shore News “Real Estate Trends” by Richard D. Sterman (R) | July 18, 2024
In the early 90’s many of us feared that the Joe Leong By-Pass Road would cause visitors to “By-Pass” our little town and we would become a ‘Ghost Town’. A few concerned residents and I created a Surf Museum to put Haleiwa on the map… and it did. The North Shore Surf & Cultural Museum was created to help the local community and thanks to the North Shore Marketplace that gave us free rent, our Surf & Cultural Museum was able to stay in business for over a dozen years!
Now – the success of Haleiwa Town as a visitor destination is apparent… which leads us to have a new fear: WE may be the ones that will be “By-Passing” (or not driving to) Haleiwa Town because it’s either just too crowded or our favorite Mom & Pop shops are no longer there.
So: “Will Success Kill Haleiwa Town?”
There’s a point where ‘success’ begets ‘higher rents’ and ‘higher rents’ beget an ‘exodus of local businesses’ and an ‘exodus of local businesses’ can kill the culture of a town.
It’s my feeling that the local businesses are what make Historic Haleiwa Town what it is. Take that away and you’re left with only tourists entering and residents not feeling the love any longer.
If our local businesses no longer benefit from those dollars, then our local economy will surely suffer in the midst of all that success!
The reason I’m writing this now is to wake up our community … just a bit. The newest shopping center is owned by Bishop Estate and their lease rents are already the highest. The land under the other 2 Shopping Centers is also owned by Bishop Estate and those Land-Leases have either gone up or about to go up… substantially.
The higher the land-lease rents, the higher the local businesses will have to pay for their individual rents and if the Mom & Pops of Haleiwa can’t afford that rent, they will close their doors and probably close them forever.
RESULTS: Goodbye to our local businesses, goodbye to our local economy and, eventually, goodbye to the wonderful “character” of our Historic Haleiwa Town.
I called Bishop Estate for their thoughts and they sent me this statement: “(We are) committed to enhancing the Haleʻiwa community’s well-being and preserving the region’s rich cultural heritage. Our lease agreements are fair.”
If Bishop Estate wants to enhance our ‘well-being’ and preserve our ‘cultural heritage’… then help us keep our vibrant local businesses alive! Please, simply consider NOT raising your rents so high (even if it seems ‘fair’ to you) because many of us feel it will force most of our “Mom & Pop” businesses OUT of business.
Bishop Estate owns nearly 90% of all the commercial land in our little town… that’s what this article is about… please Bishop Estate, make a little less profit on our Historic Haleiwa Town to help keep our ‘character’ and ‘economy’ and ‘businesses’ local and vibrant!