Maui Now photo of Pā‘ia by Alexandra Mitchell.

Maui’s historic Pā‘ia Town is located about eight miles east of Kahului Town and Kahului (OGG) Airport. Pā‘ia is a popular bohemian-style town on Maui’s North Shore, loved by both residents and visitors.

It isn’t just a place for North Shore residents to shop, dine and congregate when traveling between North Shore areas. It’s also a place that attracts a lot of presence from tourists and island transients due to its proximity to North Shore beaches and local attractions.

Maui Now photo of Baldwin Beach by Alexandra Mitchell.

Without a doubt, Pā‘ia is a stylish place to live on Maui, and both a marketable and profitable place to invest in real estate. But first and foremost, Pā‘ia is undoubtedly one of Hawai‘i’s most famous small towns. It is super-rich in both local culture and agricultural history. In fact, Pā‘ia’s history started in the late 1800s.

Past

In 1883, two schoolboy friends gone business partners, Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, founded the Pā‘ia Plantation. The Pā‘ia Plantation was also known as Samuel T. Alexander & Co., Haleakalā Sugar Company, Alexander & Baldwin Plantation, and now, Alexander & Baldwin Incorporated. By the 1900s, the Pā‘ia Plantation had become one of the most lucrative sugar plantations and bankable agricultural businesses in the Pacific.

Due to a high demand for Hawai‘i sugar production, the Pā‘ia Sugar Mill and A&B attracted immigrant workers from around the world, coming primarily came from China, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Puerto Rico and Portugal. Together with Maui’s local Hawaiian population, Pā‘ia Town’s population and local culture was reborn. In the 1930s, Pā‘ia Town was unmistakably Maui’s biggest population center.

Aerial image of the North Shore from Google Images for “reuse with modification.”

Present

Today, Pā‘ia is a quaint one-stoplight town found at the cross section of Hāna Highway and Baldwin Avenue. The Pā‘ia Sugar Mill that once supported the town finally closed in 2000, but not without leaving remnants of the town’s past.

Decorated with colorful plantation-style storefronts and a collection of unique boutiques, art galleries and restaurants, Pā‘ia appears to be an entrepreneur’s dream, which it quite frankly has become. Behind new business and new development, there is undoubtedly still a strong local backbone in Pā‘ia Town. It’s not just found in the available real estate offerings, but also in the heartbeat of the local residents and those that whole heartedly claim the North Shore as their home.

Skill Village

About one mile up from Pā‘ia’s center and just steps uphill from the historic Pā‘ia Sugar Mill, is a residential neighborhood known as Skill Village. In addition to Skill Village, the area surrounding the sugar mill once housed workers and their families in plantation housing camps and small villages. What is known as Skill Village today is an off-site area that became home to retired plantation workers and their families.

The residential properties found in Maui’s Skill Village are typically plantation-style single-family homes, but there are also some newer additions that have been built on vacant property lots. Buying opportunities in Skill Village are most definitely a hot commodity, with homes assessed in the $300,000 to $350,000 range being sold from $500,000 to $650,000 or more.

Just moments from Pā‘ia Town, North Shore beaches and a variety of schools, Skill Village is once again becoming one of the most sought-after family neighborhoods in the area.

Skill Village Properties for Sale

565 Pili Loko Street (foreclosure)

535 Kahua Place ($459,000)

648 Pili Loko Street ($515,000)

514 Pahika Street ($525k)