The University of Hawaiʻi Foundation and Hunt Development Group Hawaiʻi selected Island Brew Coffeehouse to open its fourth location early next year in the Walter Dods, Jr. RISE Center, the mixed-use innovation center/student housing facility at the University of Hawaiʻi’s flagship Mānoa campus.
Island Brew’s new RISE Center location is a 1,700-square-foot space on the ground floor of the historic Charles Atherton Building with street frontage at the corner of Metcalf Street and University Avenue. Large windows facing both Metcalf Street and University Avenue will have natural lighting, and seating will be available inside of the Island Brew itself and on the ground floor of the RISE Center. The new Island Brew will be open to UH students and employees, as well as the general public.
Rafael Baez, who owns Island Brew with his wife, Peiyu Wen, said they plan to open a popup location at RISE in January, while the new store is being built out with the opening planned in time for the fall 2024 semester.
The popup will serve espresso drinks, cold brew coffee and a limited menu of food, such as pastries. When the main store opens, it will have the same menu as Island Brew’s other locations, with a full coffee menu featuring Rusty’s Hawaiian Coffee from Hawaiʻi Island, plus açai bowls, smoothies and hot freshly made sandwiches, including breakfast sandwiches.
“We are excited to serve not just the student population but the immediate neighborhood and Mānoa,” said Baez. “We really like to integrate with the neighborhood, as we’ve done in Hawaiʻi Kai, Ala Moana and Kakaʻako.”
Read more about the UH Mānoa RISE center.
Hunt, UH and the UH Foundation entered into a public-private partnership (P3) to design, build and finance the live, learn and work innovation facility. The Walter Dods, Jr. RISE Center is fully funded with private, non-taxpayer money. The first UH students moved into the $70 million live-learn-work RISE Center in August for fall 2023.
Hundreds of students, faculty and staff will study and work in the RISE Center each day, while 374 residents live in the complex above. Island Brew will open in this prime location, which is conveniently located for the nearly 20,000 UH Mānoa students, as well as more than 1,000 faculty and staff, and the nearby Mānoa and Mōʻiliʻili communities.
