COURTESY SERVCO PACIFIC INC. Servco Pacific Inc. will spend $8 million to triple the size of the Toyota City showroom in Mapunapuna and will rename it Servco Auto Honolulu.

Servco spending $8 million
to triple size of Toyota City

The company will spend $8 million to triple the size of its Toyota City showroom in Mapunapuna from 13,000 square feet to 39,000 square feet.

The company also is building a new $12 million Servco Auto Leeward dealership in Waipahu.

"By significantly expanding and renovating our Mapunapuna dealership, we can better showcase the breadth of Servco's automotive products and services," said Mark Fukunaga, chairman and chief executive.

Operations at Toyota City will continue during the construction. The name Toyota City will eventually go away and be replaced with Servco Auto Honolulu, since the dealership also sells the Suzuki line. Servco also has Lexus and Scion dealerships.

Scion of Hawaii opened last July on the same block, but its operations are separate and unaffected by the project, said Rick Ching, senior vice president of Servco Pacific.

In recent years car dealers have added espresso bars, food service counters and "auto spas." Servco plans no such froufrou frills.

"We are going to have a coffee area and customer waiting rooms and that sort of thing, but at this point we're not planning something as elaborate (as that)," Ching said.

The lead architect on both projects is Architects Hawaii Ltd., though others have been consulted for various aspects. said Ching.

The company has a long-term lease for the entire Mapunapuna property and is expanding into the old Gibson's store space, for those who remember it.

Blowout expected

Papa John's has a new deal with stadium food service operator Centerplate to be the pizza provider for games and other events such as the swap meet. Officials hope pizza fumes blow out of the ovens in the B-section kitchen on the main concourse and from the mobile trailer kitchen between the box office and north end zone tunnel. The company will offer cheese and pepperoni slices at a stadium-priced $4.25 each.

The previous purveyor of pies at Aloha Stadium was the Pizza Shop, which is based in the airport area.

"We know the volume the previous independent pizza company was doing and we think by serving a superior product ... sales should be very strong," said Jeff Jervik, owner of Papa John's Pizza Hawaii.

The pizza ovens are projected to be able to handle a sellout crowd, such as the one expected this weekend as the University of Hawaii Warriors face the top-ranked and absolutely favored University of Southern California.

Papa John's and Pepsi are paired along with UH and Centerplate on another effort, to help curtail pregame drinking by enticing fans into the stadium earlier.

"We're going to try and do family things inside the stadium," such as providing entertainment, staging pizza eating contests and drawings for free pizza and Pepsi, said Papa John's spokesman Patrick Bullard. The entertainment is being provided by Centerplate, he said.