10 small businesses on Kuhio Avenue are told to close

Part of the seedy side of Waikiki is getting scraped away — along with more straight-laced businesses — from a prime area fronting the urban resort’s secondary but gentrifying thoroughfare.

The landlord for 10 small businesses including restaurants, nightclubs, a strip club, an adult video store, a tattoo parlor and a gun range is clearing out the tenants from a warrenlike commercial complex that fronts Kuhio Avenue and also includes an alley that was a murder scene in September.

Some of the businesses served their last customers Thursday and complained that they were given abrupt or unofficial notice under leases running until Wednesday.

“It’s a big shock for everyone here,” said Danh Pham, owner of the Vietnamese restaurant Pho Old Saigon, which has been at 2270 Kuhio Ave. for 17 years and served its last meal Wednesday night. “I’m a good tenant here.”

Seaside Bar &Grill served up its last $4.95 breakfast special of two eggs, two bacon strips and two pancakes Thursday morning. A sign posted in the window said, “Aloha! We are closing today after breakfast. Mahalo for 20 plus years of support!”

Some other tenants said they hadn’t received a formal notice, and so they expect to keep their doors open even though the landlord communicated in an email that Thursday was to be their last day of business.

The reason for the uprooting was unclear Thursday. The landlord, Bloss Family LP and its property manager, Terry Hunt of HPM Corp., could not be reached for comment.

The Bloss partnership leases the whole property from an affiliate of The Harry &Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, a major Hawaii landowner, which also did not respond to a request for comment.

In recent months the complex of four mainly two-story buildings was identified as kind of a ground zero for danger, and is where one person was killed and two wounded by a gunman.

Last month the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board singled out 13 Waikiki bars and clubs as being “high-risk” in a notice to military personnel. Of the 13, five were in the Bloss Family complex: the strip club Hawaii by Night, Club Alley Cat, Tsunami’s Waikiki, Amnesia and Envy Nightclub.

In September a man with a rifle fired about 10 rounds into a crowd outside Club Alley Cat, injuring two people and killing 22-year-old Maleko “Mac” Remlinger.

Longtime Waikiki resident Dave Moskowitz, who knows many of the business owners in the Bloss Family complex and previously worked on the property, said some good business owners are being swept out with trouble spots.

“It’s the end of a social era in Waikiki, but also it’s a good thing,” he said.

Moskowitz said Club Alley Cat, which is hidden in a back building separated from Kuhio Avenue by an alley, was a particular problem. “After 4 a.m. when (the operator of Tsunami’s) leaves, it’s like Thunderdome out here — assaults, fights, drug dealing. (Tsunami’s operator) runs a good, tight bar. When they go home, all bets are off.”

Other tenants in the complex are SWAT Gun Club, Rock Star Tattoos &Piercings and adult video store King Video.

David Chau, co-owner of Seaside Bar &Grill, said he knew about a year ago from Hunt that the restaurant dating to 1996 would have to move by the end of this month. As a result, the business is downsizing into a fast-food concession at the Newtown Golf driving range in Aiea. The new business, Newtown Asian Grindz, is expected to open in about a month and employ four to six people, down from about 25.

Pham of Pho Old Saigon said he was surprised by a Jan. 5 letter from Hunt providing 20 days to pack up and turn in door keys. Pham said Hunt previously encouraged him to invest in upgrades and gave no notice before Jan. 5 that an extension wouldn’t be given on a long-term lease that expires Wednesday. Now Pham is searching for somewhere to relocate.

“It’s really sad,” he said, adding that his nine employees are out of a job.

Pham’s daughter, Karan, said the abrupt notice was discourteous and forced her to fly to Honolulu from Los Angeles to help her dad. “Twenty days to just get out?” she said.

Kuhio Avenue had long been a back alley of sorts to Kalakaua Avenue and all the glitzy shops on Waikiki’s main thoroughfare. But in recent years Kuhio Avenue landowners have invested heavily.

Across the street from the Bloss Family complex, the owner of the former Waikiki Trade Center office tower converted the building into the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach hotel, a Nordstrom Rack store, a Starbucks Reserve Bar and an upscale dining and shopping pavilion called Duke’s Lane Market &Eatery.

Other nearby additions on Kuhio Avenue include the luxury boutique hotel The Laylow, which opened last year after spending $60 million on a 50-year-old hotel; a $110 million Hilton Garden Inn that opened two years ago; and a Saks Fifth Avenue that graces the street as part of the $500 million rebuilt International Market Place, which also opened in 2016.

Later this year a second Ritz-Carlton Residences tower is slated to open on Kuhio Avenue. Condominium units in the first building cost $1 million to $20 million. And two eggs, potatoes, grilled tomato, local bacon plus juice and coffee or tea for breakfast at BLT Market in the tower costs $29.