Hana Marketplace Plan B
Posted by: Kawika on November 2nd, 2007
Aloha
As you’ll read below a lot of money went into getting a marketplace built for Hana for all the right reasons:
Hana Marketplace Grant: (Excerpt is from 2002)
Overview The University of Hawaii - West Oahu Campus will receive a $599,875 Alaskan Native/Native Hawaiian Institutions Assisting Communities Program grant, which will augment its efforts to create the Hana Marketplace. Hana is a remote community of about 2,000 residents located on the western coast of Maui. Each year some 500,000 tourists visit the scenic town. Working with the Hawaii Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development, Lokahi Pacific, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Hina-malailena, the University of Hawaii - West Oahu will make the most its tourist population by creating this new marketplace. The Hana Marketplace will provide commercial space for resident-owned small business, create new job opportunities, offer training in entrepreneurial enterprises and computer applications to business management, and encourage the startup and incubation of local companies by getting their operations online through computer technology training.
I, for one, looked forward to this Marketplace getting built for years. It’s not clear to me why it didn’t come to life with the overwhelming support it had from the Hana community, government officials, and financially.
Rather then dwell on “woulda-coulda-shoulda” I figured it was time for a Plan B. The internet wasn’t a household word when the original Hana Marketplace was on the drawing board. But, it’s here now! Why not take advantage of the power of the net to try and accomplish some of the same things originally planned?
I hope you’ll help me in my cause to develop a Hana Marketplace that the Hana community can be proud of and perhaps even benefit from as it grows in popularity as a shopping destination for people who want Hawaiian products and gift items.
Mahalo
Kawika
Read: Hana Marketplace Plan B »
