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Local natural foods store Down to Earth Organic & Natural plans to expand into Kakaako with its sixth store in Hawaii.
The retailer announced Wednesday that it will open a 13,000-square-foot store next fall on the ground floor of the midrise Keauhou Lane apartment complex now being built.
Oregon-based developer Gerding Edlen is building Keauhou Lane with 209 rental homes at the corner of Keawe and Pohukaina streets, and is leasing some of the commercial space to Down to Earth.
Keauhou Lane is next to a condominium tower called Keauhou Place, under construction and part of a 29-acre master plan by Kamehameha Schools that includes up to 2,750 homes and 300,000 square feet of commercial space.
A Whole Foods store is being built several blocks away at Ward Village, in a condo tower called Ae‘o, slated for completion in 2018.
Big Isle macadamia farmland preserved
A nonprofit land preservation organization has paid a Hawaii island macadamia nut farm owner to keep the land in agricultural use in perpetuity.
Hawaiian Islands Land Trust announced Tuesday that it bought a conservation easement on the 211-acre Grassman Macadamia Nut Farm. The trust declined to disclose the price of the easement but said the money was provided by the Freeman Foundation of Honolulu.
The trust said the arrangement will conserve working farmland next to the Kau Forest Reserve in Naalehu.
Hawaiian Islands Land Trust was formed in 2011 by merging four local land trusts. The organization said it has conserved about 17,500 acres by acquiring land or through conservation easements, which restrict use of land for current and future owners.
Local natural foods store Down to Earth Organic & Natural plans to expand into Kakaako with its sixth store in Hawaii.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently awarded $1 million to three Hawaii organizations trying to increase production and consumption of locally grown food.
Through its Local Food Promotion Program, the agency provided grants to a breadfruit farmers cooperative on Hawaii island, an online marketplace connecting commercial food buyers with farmers, and a service that distributes food from farms on Molokai to residents.
The breadfruit cooperative, Mala Kaluulu Cooperative, received $220,773 that will help with processing, storage, marketing and distribution of the crop for a collection of growers.
Farm Link Hawaii, based in Waialua, received $498,812. The organization intends to enhance and expand its website aimed at helping supermarkets, restaurants and other buyers connect with farmers.
On Molokai, the nonprofit Sustainable Molokai received $291,048 for its farm product delivery service, Sustainable Molokai Mobile Market, which drops off preordered farm produce to customers at two locations on the island weekly.
On the Move
Joel Rappoport, a partner with the law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP in Washington, D.C., is joining First Hawaiian Bank’s senior management committee and has been named executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of the bank and its holding company, First Hawaiian Inc.
Rappoport’s appointment is effective Jan. 3. Rappoport, who has more than 31 years’ experience as an attorney, has been a partner since 2008 at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, where he advises financial institutions and their holding companies on structuring, negotiating and executing complex corporate transactions.
Outrigger Enterprises Group has made these appointments:
>> Carl Light has joined the group as director of digital guest experiences.
>> Sun Wong has been promoted to vice president of marketing and guest acquisitions.
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