[ CONSTRUCTING A COMMUNITY ]

Building on the past
to create futures

City Mill's goal is to be the
headquarters for home or office repairs

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By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com

There was a time during City Mill's 100-year history when you could find everything from beams to shingles to build an entire house.

Today, Steven Ai, who just completed his first decade as president and chief executive officer of City Mill, described the mission of Hawaii's oldest hardware store is to be the "headquarters for the repair and maintenance of your home or office."

To that end, Ai explained, the eight City Mill stores across Oahu have increased their inventory by 10,000 items in the last three years.

Browsing through the displays in the Nimitz Highway flagship store, Ai paused at a board filled with corks and clasps and metal sleeves and bolts. He held up a tiny aluminum tube.

"What does anybody need with a threaded, three-quarter-inch aluminum spacer? Well, I bet somebody needs it, and here it is," Ai said.

In a larger sense, Ai sees City Mill as a vital link in a community awash in rapid change.

RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM City Mill President and Chief Executive Officer Steven Ai, in the Nimitz Highway store where his office is located, talked about the hardware chain's offerings, including new designer merchandise.

"We are part of the history," he said. "A lot of people remember how they came here on Saturdays with their fathers. It is part of their memories.

"If there is something from your past and the present and hopefully the future, there is a thread of consistency," Ai said.

Since 1899, there has been a City Mill in Honolulu. It was started by Chung Kun Ai, who at the age of 14 came to Hawaii with his father from China.

Chung Kun Ai's father had come to Hawaii in 1868 and established himself as a merchant in Kona. The family history notes that the "young teenager, speaking neither English nor Hawaiian, enrolled in Iolani School, where he spent two years."

That time represented his only formal education, but it was also a time where he converted to Christianity and became friends with a fellow Iolani student, Sun Tai-Cheong, who was later known as Sun Yat Sen, the Chinese revolutionary leader, considered the father of modern China.

After Iolani, Ai worked first in a tailor shop and then was hired by James I. Dowsett, the businessman, plantation owner, whaler and rancher.

Befriended by Dowsett, who was impressed with Ai's perseverance and loyalty, the young businessman learned how to manage business accounts.

Following Dowsett's death in 1898, Ai continued to work at the company, refusing pay, while the estate was being settled, according to the company history.

Later, Ai bought Dowsett's chair, a safe and desk and decided to go into business for himself. It was the beginning of City Mill, a company that at one time owned pineapple fields, the largest rice mill in Hawaii and a five-masted schooner, the largest in the Pacific, hauling lumber from the Northwest.

After the stores grew, Ai started the Chung Kun Ai Foundation. He was also instrumental in building the First Chinese Church of Christ, the Nuuanu YMCA and a building on the Iolani school campus.

That same community spirit continues through the generations, as Steven Ai and his sister, Carol Ai May, City Mill vice president and marketing manager, are involved in the Aloha United Way campaign. Steven is chairman of the Pacesetter campaign, and Carol and her husband are overall chairs of the AUW campaign.

City Mill Co., Ltd. Founded: 1899 Employees: 450 Stores: >> Honolulu, 660 N. Nimitz Highway >> Hawaii Kai, 333 Keahole St. >> Kaimuki, 3086 Waialae Ave. >> Kaneohe, 46-209 Kahuhipa St. >> Mililani, 95-455 Makaimoimo St. >> Pearl City, 98-1277 Kaahumanu St. >> Waianae, 86-120 Farrington Highway >> Waipahu, 94-157 Leoleo St.