Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Kapiolani corridor
merchants rev
for business
A BMW dealership is the
By Brett Alexander-Estes
latest business trying to pump new
life into the economically-
strained corridor
Star-BulletinBMW of Honolulu this week opens the latest chapter in the transformation of Kapiolani Boulevard, once envisioned as a corridor of luxury condominiums and high-end retail.
The car dealership is the third luxury auto shop to open on the Kapiolani stretch between South Street and Ward Avenue over the past three years.
The 50,691-square-foot showroom and service center has 40 percent more capacity than BMW's former Beretania Street location and offers some innovative amenities. It touts a distinctively upscale shopping experience, featuring a cappucino bar, a BMW merchandise shop, a children's center, and a business center, which offers large private desk stations with email hookups.
Michael Leineweber of architectural firm Media Five said the dealership's slate-tile floors and cherry-wood furnishings are all "part of the quality image of BMW."
"They want to extend that image to every aspect of the selling environment," said Leineweber, project director for the BMW dealership.
Outside the sleek dealership, however, the shabby buildings nearby show that Kapiolani's transformation is still in progress.
During the late 1980s when Japanese investment in Hawaii seemed to be expanding the state's horizons, development along Kapiolani Boulevard was envisioned as a string of luxury condominium buildings that would include a mix of high-end retail, office and residential units.But the Japanese bubble burst and 10 years later Kapiolani is still a hodgepodge of new and old, of elegant renovation and economic stagnation.
From a high of $350-to-$400 a square foot at the peak of Japanese investment, land values on Kapiolani Boulevard plummeted in the 1990s and now hover around $100 a square foot. That price "is fairly consistent across the board for all properties on Kapiolani," said Richard Stellmacher, president of Stellmacher & Sadoyama Ltd., a real estate appraisal company.
The recent move to Kapiolani by two other Hawaii luxury car dealerships -- TheoDavies Euromotors Ltd., Hawaii dealer for both Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, and Servco Lexus -- is generally regarded as a turnaround point for the boulevard.
Both are just a stone's throw from BMW's new dealership, and many observers regard the proximity as beneficial.
"There's some synergy there," said Ron Teves, commercial division president of real estate firm Chaney, Brooks & Co. "They'll (all) benefit operationally."
Still, there is some disagreement as to whether the dealerships will benefit the boulevard as a whole.
"A car lot is a car lot is a car lot," said Stephany L. Sofos, retail and real estate consultant.
Sofos said that car dealerships, no matter how luxurious, are considered "secondary" or "ancillary" retail.
BMW's move to Kapiolani is functional, said Scott Gomes, senior vice president of real estate firm CB Richard Ellis, "but you certainly wouldn't characterize it as the highest and best use (of the land.)"
A blessing at the new BMW Kapiolani showroom is scheduled for today and an invitation-only grand opening is planned for July 21.
