Staking Their Claim

Family shops and local businesses are signing on as Lewers retail gets a fresh look

More than two dozen retailers have staked a claim at Waikiki Beach Walk, the newest commerce complex in a visitor destination where retailing is a 365-days-a-year affair.

It is not a place for newbies.

"While we have the advantage of having visitors coming and going every day, we do want operators that understand what they're getting into," said Barbara Campbell, vice president of retail development and leasing for Outrigger Enterprises Group.

Many of the retailers are local, as it was "important to us ... to give local retailers an opportunity in Waikiki."

Some, like Crazy Shirts, already have a presence in Waikiki and, in fact, got started there.

Others, like Freaky Tiki Tropical Optical and Jewelry by Lei and Kea, are new in name, but the principals have previous retail and/or wholesaling experience.

Campbell is "very excited about our leasing program and the quality of our merchants."

Outrigger Enterprises Group, developer of Waikiki Beach Walk and landlord, is hardly the only kamaaina, family-owned business in this scenario. Multigeneration family retailers also are part of the mix.

No corner of Waikiki would seem complete without an ABC Store, one of which occupies two bays in the complex. "We really enjoy doing business with the Kosasa family," which owns the chain, Campbell said. "We think this is going to be one of their best locations in Waikiki."

Another convenience store, Coco Cove, belongs to the Sullivan Family of Companies, which also owns the Oasis Lifestyle resort apparel shop.

The host culture

Despite all the talk about maintaining a Hawaiian sense of place, there is concern about the overcommercialization of Waikiki.

The Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association was consulted and made a body of recommendations on the Waikiki Beach Walk project.

"There's a way to develop a project where you could actually create a cultural curriculum by the way you design a place, with plants, sidewalks and wall spaces. You don't have to take up leasable space to tell a story," said Peter Apo, the association's director of culture and education.

The association has been "bothered" that the tourism business model "has been so visitor-centered that over the last 50 years we have rushed to meet all the creature comforts of the visitor, that we've begun to turn parts of Hawaii into looking like the places the visitors were trying to get away from," he said.

He believes it is possible to "connect our past to our future in a way that we can all be proud of."

One way is to remove industry obstacles so "the host can more directly come in contact with the hosted. We think that's the five-star experience."

Mana Hawaii -- Spirit of Hawaii Nei, an art and gifts store, will be part of the tenant mix. "It is the first all-Hawaiian, legitimate retail opportunity, so we're kind of excited about that," Apo said.

How much is too much?

The Retail Merchants of Hawaii believes in a vibrant, evolving retail marketplace, in keeping with consumer demand.

"Our official philosophy on retail is that we have got to maintain an exciting marketplace because the more exciting the marketplace, the better the industry is," said Carol Pregill, president.

So how much is too much?

"We haven't seen it yet," she said. "We have over the years lost a number of retailers, and we have new ones, and as consumers we're always looking for something new, something different."

Pregill also believes Waikiki Beach Walk's retailers will score strongly with local residents "because the change is so drastic."

Waikiki has marketed itself to kamaaina before, usually during tourism downturns, "but it was the Waikiki that always was. Now we have a whole new Waikiki."

The key is accessibility, Pregill said, "and I think that's been factored in."