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Ala Moana Center
parent linking
mall to Internet
General Growth goes straight
From staff and wire reports
to Cisco Systems to get wiredGeneral Growth Properties Inc., the second-largest U.S. shopping mall owner, said it is teaming up with Cisco Systems Inc. to wire its malls with high-speed telecommunications and Internet connections.
Ala Moana Center, owned and managed by Chicago-based General Growth, is one of those malls and is reviewing what it needs to house the cables, the center's senior vice president and general manager Dwight Yoshimura said yesterday.
General Growth said the move is designed to link retailers in its properties with data, video and voice services to help them increase productivity and operate more efficiently. San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco is the No. 1 maker of computer-networking equipment.
The announcement is the latest by a property owner looking to provide additional revenue-producing services for its tenants. Some of the nation's largest office-building owners have already formed a so-called broadband venture, and a group of mall owners, not including General Growth, are doing the same.
General Growth owns or manages 136 malls in 37 states with a total of 116 million square feet of space. The company is second in size only to Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc., which has 184 million square feet of space.
General Growth bought Ala Moana Center, which it already managed, from Japan-based Daiei Inc. for $810 million in July.
Bloomberg News and Star-Bulletin reporter Tim Ruel
contributed to this report.
