On the corner of Beach Road and Ka'ahumanu Highway in Kahului sits a nondescript warehouse of a building that has served as an emblem of each era it has seen. While other structures live and die by their one purpose, the building on the windswept beginning of Beach Road has changed with the times, morphing into whatever it needed to be to stay useful.

If that meant a disco ball, so be it.

In the 1970s, 25 South Kahului Beach Road was Maui's one and only roller skating rink, Skate Palace. It was home base for countless eighth-graders in Jordache jeans, Lightning Bolt shirts and feathered bangs, with couples skating to Peaches and Herb singing "reunited and it feels so good." (Reunited? In the eighth grade?)

Prior to the sky-blue skating rink, the disco ball hanging from the ceiling and the row of pinball machines, the building was first Emjay's, the precursor to Foodland. Emjay's was something of a rebel, an urban grocery store on a rural island. It wasn't in the middle of a neighborhood like Ooka's or Takamiya's. It wasn't part of a shopping center (they weren't called 'malls' yet) like Star Market or Ah Fook's. Emjay's was out there all by itself, walking distance only from Harbor Lights apartments and Maui Beach Hotel.

After roller disco faded, the building became a church in the early 1980s. Services for First Assembly of God were held right on the blue skating floor. Pastor Marocco kept the 40,000-square-foot space packed with worshippers, so much so, that they built an even bigger church complex at the corner of Pu'unene and Dairy Road.

When the church moved out, the property became Cutter Maui Imports during the Mayor Linda (nee Cutter) Lingle years. New cars and flags filled the lot and the building became the showroom and business offices for car sales. Cutter Volkswagen, Cutter Ford, Cutter Dodge, Cutter Chrysler. You name it, Cutter sold it — until December 2007 when Cutter closed and sold the building.

In terms of location, 25 South Kahului Beach Road has a unique set of circumstances. It is highly visible, on the corner of two busy roads between Kahului airport and Kaahumanu Shopping Center. That's good. It is downwind of often-pungent Kahului Harbor. That's not so good. At least not for a residential development or preschool.

So now, in 2008, it has become ... OK, three guesses and the first two don't count.

A Starbucks? No, the building is too big for that.

A Bali import furniture store? Nah, the one up the street closed a few years back.

Give up? Ceramic tile. So 2008!

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.