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TWELVE YEARS AGO, Kalihi-born Heine Fountain was sitting in a local disco, sipping orange juice and watching the activity around him. A senior on Christmas break from Willamette University in Oregon, Fountain was doing a study on "nightlife people" for a sociology class. In the process, one particular fact caught his attention: A bottle of liquor that cost the club $10 contained 26 shots that could be sold to customers for $2 apiece. That 500-percent markup impressed him. "It didn't take me long to learn that nightclubs could be a very profitable business," he says.
Today, 32-year-old Fountain is the co-owner of both Cilly's Nightclub and Lounge, and The Jazz Cellar, two Waikiki nightspots which together rang up sales of more than $1.5 million last year. Fountain is also the founder and president of the Liquor Dispensers of Hawaii, an organization of a dozen nightclub owners who lobby legislators on issues affecting the local industry. Last year he founded Heine Fountain Enterprises, a personal management company for Island entertainers. "My goal is to be a Chris Hemmeter type," says Fountain. "By the time I'm 50, I plan to be doing big developments like shopping centers, commercial complexes and hotels."
Tall talk from a kid who grew up in Waianae? Entertainer Dolly Parton doesn't think so. Parton, who has a net worth of more than $200 million and who last year signed the biggest deal in television history with ABC, has handpicked Fountain to manage her business interests in Hawaii. The two are partners in Blue Indigo Enterprises, which will pursue a variety of real estate, food-service and entertainment ventures here and on the Mainland. In November, their first business joint venture in the Islands, Dockside Plantation, an 8,000-square-foot restaurant on the waterfront in Hawaii Kai, held its splashy grand opening (see story, page 59). Parton and Fountain want to follow that up with a local construction company, a movie production house, and a chain of restaurants and Las Vegas-style showrooms in Hawaii and across the nation. "I made a smart move getting into business with Heine because he's extremely gifted," says Parton. "He reminds me of myself in the way I do business (see story, page 53)."
Farm roots. Parton's partner was named after Heine...