Waikele adding
upscale retailers
The factory outlet center's owners
By Rick Daysog
are repositioning it with the addition
of Barney's and Joan & David
Star-BulletinThe new owners of the Waikele Factory Outlet Center are repositioning the popular retail destination into a high-end outlet center. Chelsea GCA Realty Inc., which acquired the complex for $76.2 million in April, has renamed it the Waikele Premium Outlets and has signed up two new upscale tenants, Barney's New York Outlet and footwear retailer Joan & David.
The Roseland, N.J.-based company said it plans to add additional high-end retailers as leases expire and spaces open up.
Chelsea also named Roy Toguchi, former general manager of the Paris Fashion retail store at Waikele, as the center's new general manager.
"It's a terrific center and we think we can make it better by bringing in more tenants in the high end," said Les Chao, Chelsea's president.
The Barney's store, which will open in the next few months, will occupy about 6,300 square feet of space and will replace the Corning Revere Factory Store. Joan & David will replace the 2,200-square-foot Maui Discount Golf & Tennis outlet.
Michele Rothstein, Chelsea's vice president of marketing, said that Chelsea has looked at several other well-known, high-end retailers but she declined to reveal their names.
And while Chelsea is changing the center's mix, the company said it doesn't want to alienate local shoppers -- a mistake that some retail destinations have made during the past 10 years.
"We are bringing a distinctive upscale look but we don't want to exclude anybody," Rothstein said. "We're just polishing the jewel."
Local marketing analyst Marty Plotnick said the moves make sense given the changes in Hawaii's retail market and its investment in Waikele.
Chelsea paid an industry record $356 a square foot when it acquired the Waikele Factory Outlet from WCC Associates, which also owns the nearby Waikele Value Center, home to Kmart, Sports Authority, Eagle Hardware, Borders Books & Music and other stores.
