Maui businesses share stories of resilience after Lahaina wildfire disaster

With the one-year anniversary of the Lahaina and Upcountry wildfires drawing near, business owners are pausing to reflect on their resilience and ability to withstand adversity, including losses of life, property and livelihood.

According to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, Lahaina was home to nearly 1,000 businesses, accounting for almost 20% of all establishments on Maui. Most of Lahaina’s business community was reduced to ashes. Those that survived were unable to operate in the off-limits burn zone or for lack of foot traffic immediately after the disaster.

CocoNene founders Kent and Lori Untermann said: “We noticed early on that there was so much support for our community, and it has been so astounding to see everyone rallying around the people of Lahaina and helping in all the ways that they can. However, there really wasn’t a lot being said or done for the business community, and many of our local businesses are suffering.”

They said that, “as small business owners in Lahaina, we felt a tremendous desire to help fellow Maui small businesses that have been impacted. We know that the process of rebuilding Lahaina will be long, but we look forward to the day we can welcome people back to this special place.” 

CocoNene, along with Tabora Gallery and Ululani’s Shave Ice, lost their Front Street storefronts in the wildfire disaster. Now, they are committed to rebuilding and recovering, and hoping other Maui business owners will do the same.

CocoNene is a retailer that designs, produces and sells its own products in Hawaiʻi. The business is “deeply rooted in the island lifestyle and Hawaiʻi’s gift-giving culture,” according to the Untermanns.

Before the wildfire, CocoNene drew in 800 to 1,000 customers daily to its then flagship location next to Fleetwood’s on Front Street. The store offered unique, made-in-Hawaiʻi home décor and personalized gifts. The flagship store accounted for 50% of the company’s annual sales, the Untermanns said.

After the disaster, the Untermanns pivoted, “choosing to shift their business strategy towards recovery and ensuring the continued livelihoods of their employees,” they said.

Sixty-nine days after the loss of their Maui store, the Untermanns opened a new location at Kings’ Shops at Waikoloa Beach Resort on Hawaiʻi Island. By December, they returned to Maui by opening a new store at the Maui Harbor Shops in Maʻalaea. Shortly before Christmas, they unveiled a new 3,800-square-foot flagship store at International Market Place on Oʻahu. Then, they opened another new Maui store at Kīhei Kalama Village in February.

Along with expanding their own business, the Untermanns also supported other Maui businesses. CocoNene launched “Maui Biz Ornaments,” inspired by its sister brand HI Biz Ornaments.

In partnership with local Maui businesses, CocoNene created a collection of beautifully crafted collectible wooden ornaments that featured each business’s logo. All of the ornaments were locally made and designed in Hawaiʻi by CocoNene at no cost to the participating businesses. Fifty percent of the ornament sales were donated back to the affected businesses, aiding in their efforts to recover and rebuild.

“CocoNene’s journey is evidence of the spirit of Hawaiʻi, one of resilience, community support, and ‘ohana,” the Untermanns say. “As part of a family of brands, alongside the kamaʻaina company Pictures Plus, CocoNene upholds the values of hard work and perseverance.”

Artist Roy Tabora of Tabora Gallery has called Hawaiʻi home for more than 40 years. After visiting Hawaiʻi for the first time at just 18-years-old from his native Guam, Tabora remembers, “When I got off the plane in Honolulu, I immediately felt like I came home.” 

After graduating from the University of Hawaiʻi, he started showcasing his paintings at markets on Oʻahu. But it wasn’t until his paintings began selling quickly at Kent Untermann’s Hilton Hawaiʻi Village gallery that Untermann took notice. 

“‘I think this should be your gallery,’ Kent told me,” Tabora says, “I told him, ‘I’ll do it, if we can be partners.’ On the way home,” Tabora says, “I phoned my mom, ‘How do you run a gallery?’” 

Tabora Gallery was founded, and the rest is history: “Whenever you are in a position to follow your heart, do it. That’s what I always share with my daughters.”

Since then, Tabora has expanded his art galleries across Hawaiʻi, including at Waikiki’s International Market Place, a Haleiwa outpost, Kauai’s Royal Sonesta Resort and Maʻalaea’s Maui Harbor Shops. Another store is planned for Kona later this year.  

The Lahaina storefront first opened in 2020, but everything was lost in the fire. Tabora, however, still found a way to give back. A portion of store sales can still be donated towards continued Maui relief: https://taboragallery.com/charity/.

Tabora also put together a 2024 Calendar for those who wanted a smaller version of his artwork; sales brought in over $20,000 for Maui fire relief. 

“The secret has always been the people, our staff – that’s where your bread is buttered,” Tabora said. The impacts of the fires on his staff – from many having to leave Maui, or the Islands, completely – have been the hardest challenge. But he is not giving up: “We do plan to eventually come back to Lahaina. Even though we lost the building, the land is still ours.”

Lahaina has special meaning to David Yamashiro, one of the co-founders of Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice: the Front Street locations destroyed in the fires were also the birthplaces of the popular dessert shop.

Yamashiro, his wife Charlotte Ululani, and longtime friend and former business partner, Brad Edgerton, co-founded Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice. They opened their first store on Lahaina’s Front Street in 2008. “Everything we accomplished since then, is the result of us being [in Lahaina],” Yamashiro said. They lost two shops, and their warehouse – which supplied those westside shops — in the Lahaina blaze. 

“We didn’t know we were going to close until 12 p.m. on August 8, when we found out that the roofs on two neighboring shops in our courtyard were blown off,” Yamashiro said. “A good portion of our (18) Lahaina team members lost their homes, one employee lost two family members. (Lahaina was) everything they knew, grew up with, and being there for 15 years, we definitely established a lot of relationships with neighboring businesses, family members, and friends. The impact of the fire for them, was traumatic.” 

Despite the many inroads at rebuilding, Yamashiro said many Maui business owners expressed their frustration with the impacts of the fires – and the lack of support for business owners struggling to survive after losing everything. 

“For a lot (of business owners), it was their sole source of revenue and income, so the pain and the hurt they are going through – without any assistance on the business side — is very traumatic for them,” Yamashiro said. “Many Maui businesses don’t qualify for loans due to a lack of income or credit challenges since the fire. Keep in mind that a lot of business owners were still recovering from COVID and had governmental loans that they are still paying on. And now, the fires.”

Yamashiro said he knows how much Ululani’s meant to the Lahaina community, as both employees and customers felt the severity of the fires’ impact – pitching in to support one another in the immediate aftermath of loss. A GoFundMe page set up just a few days after the fires for Ululani’s Lahaina staff went on to raise over $194,000. Additional checks and cash donated brought the overall total to $270,000, a lifeline to dozens of Ululani’s affected employees and Lahaina residents. 

Ululani’s Kīhei location has now become a primary source of business and revenue, after being their second-highest grossing location for over 12 years. “A lot of people who would have gone to Lahaina, will now go to our Kīhei shop,” Yamashiro said. “(Ululani’s) is a big part of the positivity of Maui. The rebuilding in Lahaina will be a long process.”

In the meantime, Ululani’s sees business thriving at its other locations, including a brand-new franchise shop in Pearl City and a year-old shop in Kapahulu on Oʻahu, and other franchise locations in California, Texas and Florida, later this year.