The Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii has purchased a downtown building in which to establish a Chinatown Community Development Center.

The chamber and its nonprofit Chinatown Community Development Center Foundation purchased the building housing Home Street Bank at the corner of Nuuanu Avenue and S. King Street, and will build out chamber offices and the development center's classrooms, conference rooms and learning center on the second floor, said Wesley Fong, past president of the chamber and chairman of the building committee.

Home Street Bank will stay in the building as a tenant.

The center's mission was set because “;the chamber wants to give back, by sharing the expertise that they have because they have so many professionals”; among the membership, Fong said.

He is a retired U.S. Army colonel and attorney who teaches at the University of Hawaii School of Travel Industry Management, and is one example of a chamber member who can teach classes.

The Chinese Chamber was established in 1911 to provide service to the merchants in Chinatown as well as to help the immigrant population assimilate into the community. It now has a broader mission to promote business and economic development as well as to preserve Chinese cultural heritage — and it needed a home base for the center.

The CCDC has been on the drawing board for years and the chamber recently obtained financing from Hawaii National Bank to buy the building, said Eddie Flores, longtime chamber member and L&L Drive-Inn co-founder.

Flores was a driving force behind the Fil-Com Center in Waipahu and the chamber utilized his expertise along with other business leaders' knowledge to formulate its plan for the CCDC.

“;A lot of people identify me with Fil-Com but I'm half-Chinese (and half Filipino) and I'm very proud of both cultures,”; Flores said.

The center is not just about helping the Chinese community, but rather the broader, multiethnic community in Chinatown, where “;you don't see won ton min anymore, you see pho,”; Fong chuckled.

The center will offer classes on starting, running, protecting and marketing businesses as well as classes on ethics, environmental law and a microenterprise mentoring program.

Many such classes are offered by other organizations such as the U.S. Small Business Administration, but “;we have the capability to offer (classes taught in) diverse languages that other organizations wouldn't be able to,”; Flores said.

Those languages include Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian and others, and classes taught in such mother-tongues will be especially helpful to immigrants, Flores and Fong said.

Fong remembers the community's sadness when Shung Chong Yuein Ltd. closed last May when its longtime owners retired.

The CCDC won't guarantee it can keep family businesses running from one generation to the next, but “;I like to think that there's somebody coming from China that knows how to make those kinds of pastries,”; favored by Shung Chong Yuein's customers, said Fong.

The CCDC will be there for those who want to start such a bakery, restaurant or other business who need to know, “;where do I go, what do I do, what type of corporate structure do I set up, where do I get my financing?”; he said. “;We have the expertise.”;

From attorneys to accountants, real estate professionals to finance industry executives, “;we've got them all in our chamber…”;