The consolidation of Goodwill Hawaii’s Hilo stores and social service programs to the 67,000 square-foot campus at 17 Makaala St. acquired in late 2023 should be completed by the end of 2026.
Goodwill Hawaii Chief Executive Officer Katy Chen estimated that the development of the new Hilo campus is approximately a third of the way done, with all four of Goodwill’s programs that provide job training and placement to underserved communities already in operation on site as of last summer.
In addition to the community programs, the campus also will offer a larger, more accessible location for customers hoping to shop or donate to Goodwill’s retail store. While two of the three buildings previously leased by the nonprofit were vacated in June 2024, the remaining warehouse on Kanoelehua Avenue housing Goodwill’s store will be vacated by fall of this year, Chen said.
Goodwill plans to “relocate the store temporarily in one of the two warehouses on campus,” Chen said, adding that “the larger of the two warehouses will undergo major renovation to house the store permanently. The temporary location will provide more space for the retail floor and ample parking for customers.”
Demolition to select areas of the campus began in January, and the “extensive job” of repaving the parking lot will begin this summer. The remaining work “should commence and complete in 2026,” Chen said.
The community programs that were relocated to the new campus last year are Goodwill’s Career Services, Workforce Development, Ola I Ka Hana Youth Services, and the Intellectual Disability Services Ho’olana Program. All four help impacted communities at varying levels of age, ability, and access to services to gain employment.
These programs served 2,347 Big Island residents in 2024, according to Goodwill’s Annual Report, an increase from the 1,381 people served in 2023.
Chen said the new Makaala Street site “allows us to centralize all our services in one location, making it easier for our clients to receive help from more than one program — which many do now,” adding that “the campus provides a ‘one-stop shop’ experience for the community in job training, job education and job placement.”
Career Services helps such vulnerable groups as immigrants, reintegrating ex-offenders, adults with disabilities, and displaced workers find and secure employment, whereas the Workforce Development program supports the job hunt for those living in the low-income bracket, as well as clients referred by the state Department of Human Services.
The Ola I Ka Hana Youth Service program helps Big Island residents between aged between 14 and 24 years who struggled in traditional school settings reach their educational and employment goals, while the Ho‘olana Program supports adults with intellectual developmental challenges enhance their quality of life by becoming more independent members of the community.
“For those clients who are in our adults with disabilities program, they will be able to simply cross the parking lot to work in our stores with a supportive, supervised environment,” Chen said, explaining that the Hilo site will mirror Goodwill’s programs on Oahu in “providing a great opportunity for adults with disabilities to earn a wage.”
The final addition to the new Hilo campus is a conservation program that will recycle textiles, shred cardboard, and shred a large amount of paper to create recycled paper, Chen said, all of which will ameliorate the landfills on Big Island.
“The campus provides space for Goodwill Hawaii to conduct its recycling initiatives on the Big Island for the first time ever,” Chen said. “Previously, we did not have sufficient space to do this type of work, which we have been doing for two decades on Oahu.”
Chen said the first recycling initiative, up-cycling textiles, is expected to begin at the new campus in the next few weeks.
Goodwill Hawaii currently is conducting a capital campaign, which Chen expects to be completed in the next three years. She said the nonprofit currently has raised one quarter of the $8 million fundraising goal for the Big Island community.
Email Kyveli Diener at kdiener@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
