Aoki’s Shave Ice to close doors

Aoki’s Shave Ice in Hale­iwa will close May 30 but plans to reopen across the street within the year.

The Aoki family opened a gift shop, Aoki’s North Shore Trading Co., across Kame­ha­meha Highway from Matsu­moto’s Shave Ice, a year ago and is exploring reopening within the store or developing an adjacent building to house the popular shave ice stand, said third-generation owner Cathy Aoki.

Kamehameha Schools, which owns the land under Aoki’s Shave Ice, notified Aoki’s in February that its current lease would end May 31 as part of a redevelopment that calls for demolishing the building housing the longtime North Shore business.

The family is exploring a variety of options, including operating a food truck to adding an extension to the gift shop.

Aoki, 39, said she hopes to eventually rehire the company’s eight employees at the new location.

The family purchased the land and building for the new location at 66-082 Kame­ha­meha Highway seven years ago, before Kame­ha­meha Schools established its plan to redevelop the area.

"We just wanted to make sure we had a business in Hale­iwa no matter what," Aoki said.

The shave ice shop was opened by Aoki’s grandmother Sumie and father, Michael, in 1981.

However, the family has been in the shave ice business for four generations. Aoki’s great-grandparents began selling the local treat at a concession in the old Hale­iwa Theater after purchasing their first shave ice maker in Japan in 1939.

Generations of Aoki family members have operated a variety of businesses in Hale­iwa, including a taxi service, a general store and a sewing school, as well as door-to-door fish sales, beginning in the 1920s.

"Between my mother and father’s side of the family, this is our ninth family business in Hawaii," Cathy Aoki said.

Kamehameha Schools offered Aoki space in one of three new buildings going up at the site, but she declined. "I don’t feel like we could create our same mom-and-pop shop atmosphere," Aoki said in an earlier interview.

"We are sad to see Aoki’s leave. They represent many of the qualities that we’ll be preserving in our lineup of tenants," said Kame­ha­meha spokes­man Kekoa Paulsen. "We would’ve liked to have had them at the store lots, but it’s their decision to make and they decided to go across the street."

Kamehameha Schools, the state’s largest private landowner with 363,000 acres statewide, plans to redevelop the area along Kame­ha­meha Highway between Kewalo and Mahaulu lanes in historic Hale­­iwa town.

The redevelopment, part of a strategy to increase sources of revenue through additional lease space, is estimated to cost $12.6 million.

Besides demolishing the buildings, Kame­ha­meha Schools will improve pedestrian walkways, re-create similar architectural designs in new structures and retain five historic buildings, including Matsu­­moto Shave Ice.

Paulsen declined to provide the names of the roughly half-dozen tenants that will be filling the redeveloped space because leases haven’t been finalized, but said they will all be locally owned mom-and-pop shops similar to Aoki’s.

The shave ice stand is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.