There’s a business opportunity brewing for those who enjoy the daily grind. ADVERTISING There’s a business opportunity brewing for those who enjoy the daily grind. Hilo Coffee Mill is up for sale. Hilo Brokers has the 23.86-acre property in Kurtistown
There’s a business opportunity brewing for those who enjoy the daily grind.
Hilo Coffee Mill is up for sale. Hilo Brokers has the 23.86-acre property in Kurtistown — complete with coffee farm, roasting facilities, certified kitchen, cafe and espresso bar, and retail shop with freshly roasted beans, all along one of the state’s busiest highways — listed at $1.495 million.
Owners Jeanette Baysa and Katherine Patton, both former bankers, started the “farm to cup” operation in 2001.
“We actually started off as roasters first. Then, when we acquired the property in 2003, that’s when we started planting,” Baysa said Tuesday.
The former sugar land has 6 acres of coffee, about 6,000 trees, Baysa said. The business, with 13 employees, generates more than $700,000 in annual revenue.
Baysa said she and Patton will retire and devote more time to a project they’ve worked on for several years called Carousel of Aloha, building a carousel with hand-carved ponies.
Kelly Moran of Hilo Brokers, who has an agriculture degree from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, touted the operation’s location and potential for expansion.
“They have the potential, I believe, to plant another 5 to 10 acres, maybe more,” he said. “The No. 1 visitor attraction in the state is Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and they’re right down the highway. … The processing facility is really high quality and they have the ability to process a lot more coffee than they’re actually doing.”
“Anyone who’s interested, we’re happy to train,” Baysa said. “If a family wants to come in and do this as a family, and run it as a family farm, I think that’s awesome. They don’t have to wait for the time that it takes to plant trees and get them online.”
Baysa said she and Patton have enjoyed their interaction with staff and clientele, adding, “The farming side of it has all been great.”
“I didn’t realize how much satisfaction you can get from producing something from the dirt and being able to have people love what you do, your product,” she said. “It’s amazing. The people we’ve met and the relationships that we’ve developed and kept along the way are phenomenal.”
Listing details are online at hilobrokers.com.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
