PRINCEVILLE — From Mayor Maryanne Kusaka to The Garden Island Publisher Cynthia Schur and Managing Editor Sue Dixon, there are many women on Kaua’i who mean business. Several others were recently honored in the Women Who Mean Business special publication
PRINCEVILLE — From Mayor Maryanne Kusaka to The Garden Island Publisher Cynthia Schur and Managing Editor Sue Dixon, there are many women on Kaua’i who mean business.
Several others were recently honored in the Women Who Mean Business special publication of Pacific Business News, including four of the top 25 women-owned businesses in the state: Hanalei North Shore Properties, Ltd., owned by Roberta Haas and Miriam “Mimsy” Bouret, a real estate brokerage and property management firm in Princeville with $1.1 million in 1998 revenue, 11th on the list; Classic Aloha Vacations, Inc., of Hanalei, owned by Cathy Zadel, specializing in inbound Hawai’i wholesale and retail travel, with $1.02 million in 1998 revenue, 13th on the list; Sleeping Giant Realty, Inc., owned by Debra H. Blachowiak, Diane Treskon and Monica “Micki” Evslin, in Lihu’e, specializing in real estate sales, with 1998 revenue of $945,302, 15th on the list; Na Pali Properties, Inc., in Hanalei, specializing in real estate sales and rentals, owned by Jane F. Abramo and Nancy A. Lindman, with 1998 revenues of $564,000, 23rd on the list.
Hanalei North Shore Properties started as a real estate brokerage 19 years ago in a garage in Princeville, and now has 12 Realtors working in its offices.
Haas and Bouret had no intention of starting a vacation rental segment of their business, but through their sales of property to Mainland visitors began getting requests from the new owners to have the firm manage their properties.
“We just didn’t know how to say ‘no,'” Haas laughed.
They now manage 85 homes and condos on the North Shore.
There are four vacation rental agents now handling the properties, and responding to about 50 e-mails a week in response to the firm’s Web site, planet-hawaii.com/visit-kauai.
The e-mail address is hnsp@aloha.net. The company’s mission statement is: “Celebrating aloha in our lives, and extending it into yours,” Haas concluded.
