Hawaiian bookseller Talk Story Bookstore is moving from Hanapepe after nearly 20 years due to insurance issues with its 93-year-old building. Pacific Business News reported that the bookshop's new location is a mile away in Kaumakani, on the south side of Kauai, and the planned opening date in the new space is June 1. The current Talk Story will close sometime between April and May for the move.
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| Talk Story's current location. | |
Owner Ed Justus, who founded Talk Story in 2004 and has been in the current location since 2006, said his landlord told him a few months ago that the insurance company would not renew the property insurance coverage, due to the building's age and condition.
"As much as we would love to stay there forever because we love the building and it's a great place and our landlords have been fantastic, we needed to find another spot for the future of the business," he noted, adding that he had "cast a really wide net" in his search.
"We saw that there was a building that... my wife and I thought had a lot of similar character to our existing location," he said. "It's an older building and it's got a lot of history--it was the old Gay and Robinson Community Hall and it was built in 1946."
They are in the process of renovating the new store, "but one of the most significant changes--which they are still waiting on permitting for and will not be completed for a few months--is constructing a classic western facade at the front of the building, similar to the existing location," Pacific Business News noted. The store has set up a fundraising campaign on its website to help finance construction costs.
The new space is about 500 square feet larger than the current 1,550-square-foot store. "There is more room to grow and expand certain sections," Justus said, adding that there is a back garden that could be used to host events. "We think Kaumakani is a really cool spot to be moving into. It has some great businesses there already."