KAHULUI — The building that has been an Emjay supermarket, a roller rink, a church and a car dealership is now going to be a stone and tile sales office, warehouse and manufacturing center.
A big one.
“It’s big,” said co-owner Jim Doran III, but it will allow the family business to consolidate from a scatter of locations, as well as to expand.
Jim Doran Jr. opened the business on Maui 30 years ago. Today Jim III and his sister, Ellen Kidd, are also part of the third-generation business, which started 80 years ago in Massachusetts.
Commercial space in Kahului has been very tight recently and very large spaces especially rare. So when Cutter Maui abruptly closed its auto dealership in December, Ceramic Tile Plus moved quickly.
Its tilesetters and stonemasons are at work this week installing a travertine floor in the 14,000-square-foot entrance/display room.
“We have three colors and four finishes,” said Doran, and examples of all 12 will be underfoot. They chose travertine because it is the favorite upscale floor covering on Maui, although the business also deals in limestone, marble and granite.
“It’s very, very popular,” he said, “It’s expected.” So much so that, he says, the typical house-for-sale ad doesn’t just say “three bedrooms, two baths,” but adds “travertine floor, granite countertops.”
Ceramic Tile Plus has about 30 employees, and besides floors and counters also can install stone or tile on walls and other projects.
“We have a talented staff,” said Doran.
Doran attended the talk last month by Bank of Hawaii economist Paul Brewbaker, who predicted a somewhat slower residential construction business on Maui for the next several years.
“This is Maui,” said Doran, “we’ve been here for 30 years, and we expect to be here for the next 30 years. We believe in our market.”
The family saw the huge (nearly 40,000 square feet under roof) ex-supermarket “as a business opportunity.”
Besides the big display room, Ceramic Tile Plus will be able to keep its stone cutting, finishing and warehousing all together.
It has about 145 different kinds of stone and tile, importing most of the stone slabs directly in full container lots from Turkey, Spain, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Doran says that allows the firm to respond quickly to local demand, since it can take about 90 days to get delivery of new stone.
Doran says the manufacturing process recycles most of the water it uses and captures the stone dust.
“We’re very sensitive to all those environmental issues,” he said. “We live here, too. We’re a local family business.”
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