<Begin Segment 9>

[Ed. note: standing outside on one of the balconies of the Fujisada condominiums, looking down on the construction site for the new Uwajimaya building]

TM: The new store, you know, we bought this one block just south of us, one square block about twelve years ago. It was subject to a lease, and then when that lease ended for that General Motors franchise, we told them we'll take it over. And we start to plan over and over but we couldn't make the parking in the new store work out. So we started to then see if the other land was available, the block south of us. And so we were able to acquire that. Then we started to say, well it would make sense to vacate Lane Street, to make it two contiguous block. And that's why this design came about. But that's where also the, some of the community members got a little excited, and felt that we shouldn't have the Lane Street vacated. But economically, it would have been very difficult for us to do it otherwise.

BF: So what will it look like? What will it have? It'll be retail, or...

TM: This building that you see right now will have 220 parking stalls underneath, about 60,000 -- 66,000 square feet of retail on the first street level, which 50,000 will be taken by Uwajimaya, and then on top of that, Bruce Lorig Associates will build 176 units of market rate apartments. So we don't own the apartments. We sold them the air rights to this.

BF: Okay. What other, so what other retail tenants do you envision?

TM: Well, the Kinokuniya book store will be a major tenant. We'll have four or five smaller Asian take-out type of small restaurants. Right now we're talking to a Korean restaurant and a Filipino restaurant, we'll have a coffee place. We'll have a major bank as a tenant, and a few other smaller stores.

BF: How will this change, will this double, essentially? This retail store?

TM: For Uwajimaya, we will double our current first floor retail, approximately. We have about 22,000, so it'll double easily, yeah. But the largest expansion will be in the deli, and the produce department. In proportion ratio, proportionate ratio, the fish will be expanded little bit, the meat will stay pretty much the same, but the grocery side naturally will be expanded, so that we could accommodate increasing number of non-Japanese, Koreans and Chinese type of food products, more basic.

BF: This is a major expansion, then.

TM: Yeah, it's exciting, though.

BF: Yeah. How does this fit with, sort of the next generation, running the store?

TM: Well, we have been, have had number of meetings to explain this project to them. And we said, "This design and, how it's designed and work is our responsibility, but most likely you're gonna inherit it. But the current block where we are, and the block south where there's surface parking, those are future developments that we say is kind of, what you guys want to do." So we have hired a architectural firm to do some "what if" type of planning, and they have been talking to the next generation about that.

BF: Do, have any of the next generation, Yonsei, Gosei, are they, are there some that are already involved in the business?

TM: Uh-huh, there's four, full-time. Plus all the others will come on weekend -- no not anymore, but weekends if they live in town, and summer or Christmas vacation they'll come and work.

BF: Succession must be a complicated issue.

TM: Well, that's the most, one of the most challenging issue for us. For any first -- for any family-type situation.

BF: Right, right. 'Cause now how many, do you know how many cousins there are?

TM: Well, there's potentially nineteen, my mother has nineteen grandchildren. And the other, unfortunately, is that not everybody is gonna inherit the same percentage because of more siblings within the family, and some of the original siblings have more stock and ownership than others. So that is a, so there's a lot of complicated issues.

BF: Who's handling that? Are you in charge of figuring that one out?

TM: Well, we have consultants that we have meetings with, from time to time. But you know, once I'm six feet under, I, it would be foolish to worry about it. [Laughs]

BF: Right.

TM: It'll work out. And if it doesn't, that's fine, too.

BF: Do you think the business will, there's a chance the business would ever be sold? Not owned by...

TM: Well, that'd be up to the -- I don't think our generation will sell it, but it'd be up to the next generation.

BF: And when you're six feet under, you don't care?

TM: I doubt if I'll have any influence. [Laughs]

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.