Health Care clinic
buys Maui market site
A non-profit health care clinic on Maui has purchased the 1.3-acre site of the Ooka Super Market in Wailuku for an undisclosed price to build a new clinic, but the store will remain in operation.
The Community Clinic of Maui said it will take some time to build a new clinic at the 1870 Main St. location.
Byron Ooka, president of the family-owned grocery business, said the store will stay open with no change in hours or personnel while that is going on and the intention is to keep a renovated store in the new building when work is completed.
The parties to the transaction said it could take five years to get the first phase of the new clinic up and running. Plans for that phase call for about 17,000 square feet for examining rooms, a pharmacy, a laboratory and offices.
A second phase could include a dental clinic.
The deal, which one close source said is worth about $5 million including construction, is a sale-leaseback, in which the Ooka family sold the property to the clinic and then signed a lease for store space.
Dan Howeth, executive director of Community Clinic of Maui, said the property acquisition was made possible by interim financing from the National Cooperative Bank Development Corp. That will be replaced by a U.S. Department of Agriculture Loan of about $2.4 million, the clinic said.
Clinic officials said they also have a commitment for an additional $2.5 million from the federal Health Resources Service Administration, arranged with the help of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. The HRSA money will be used only for the renovation of the property.
The clinic said it also expects additional funds from a community development block grant from the federal government, administered by Maui County.
The clinic currently employs 61 people in a 6,300-square-foot building at 48 Lono Ave. in Kahului.
It also has smaller offices at the Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Center in Wailuku and the Lahaina Comprehensive Health Center.
Opened in 1941, the Ooka Super Market is known for its local produce such as Maui mushrooms, fresh seafood and a wide variety of flowers and other Maui products such as mochi and manju.
