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hot foods or hardware or grocery, so we've been really pleasantly embraced by the <br />community and we're very excited. We plan on opening our doors September 27t" of <br />2025, with a soft opening September 20t". We have a pretty great POS (point of sale) <br />system and Epicor system that will help us facilitate the sales throughout this project <br />once we open, and yeah we're just excited. We're looking for a retail license as well <br />as a dispenser license to serve alcohol. <br />Chinen (John): We're trying to reach out to as much concerns as possible, even <br />concerns that, I'm a retired police officer from Honolulu for 30 years, so that was my <br />concept was to bring in the Police Department, right? And they accepted, so that's <br />a real plus for the community right there, 24-hour access, two parking stalls for them <br />the whole time. I remember how that was when I was a police officer, they have some <br />place to go and write reports and stuff, right? And the community really, they like that <br />because there's really nothing out there, that's kind of like the border, right? So, we got <br />that, we reached out to the road engineers because we had concerns about that before <br />even, I already kind of know anticipating what possibilities could happen, and they're <br />working on actually putting out speed humps, and then the lights. So, we had gone to <br />the meetings, we talked to the Mayor, we've spoken to pretty much everyone that we <br />could speak to from the very get go. The President of the community is really in close <br />contact with us also, so any concerns we're willing to address, and like we said we just <br />want to give back to the community. We want to make sure the community has some <br />place that they can go and eat, someplace that they can go and shop, and there's really <br />nothing out there at this point, right? <br />Chinen (Julia): It's been a long haul, we acquired the property about eight years ago, <br />so a lot of it was planning and making sure that, it almost was like it was our last shot <br />to make sure we could fit everything on one acre and once you put parking, it doesn't <br />leave you too much. And we just wanted to address as many concerns as possible for <br />the community in that area. We have a housing facility right next door, federal housing <br />that houses about 600 residents, and then we have Kulaimano Elderly which is about <br />200 right across the street. So, for them it's like walking distance, so in the very <br />beginning when you know, this was years ago before we even went into permitting, <br />we knocked on those doors. <br />Chinen (John): We walked. <br />Chinen (Julia): And we asked them like door-to-door, like what do you need? Like, <br />oh we need food, and what about hardware? And so you know, it took a while and we <br />also contacted the people down in the gated community on the coastline, and also the <br />2,500 single-family homes in like a one -mile radius to this location. We didn't obviously <br />go to everyone, but we tried to sporadically visit some homes, and it seems that no <br />matter what economic level, everyone really needs those necessities. It's food, <br />hardware to fix your items in your home, whether you're renting or you own your own <br />home, and also groceries was a big deal. So, we're really excited about True Value <br />Hardware, they're probably gonna occupy about maybe 55% of that general store <br />section, and then the rest will be grocery. And, we're being very, very careful in <br />selecting the inventory and making sure that, because the space isn't big, that we <br />MINUTES - LIQUOR COMMISSION MEETING - THURSDAY, MAY 11 2025 - HILO PAGE 18 OF 63 <br />