Longs to open in Upcountry Maui
Longs Drug Stores will open at Kulamalu Town Center in Upcountry Maui next year.
It will be Longs' fourth full-sized store on Maui and 40th store in Hawaii. Another store, under development in Pearl City, will be Longs' 41st store.
The Kulamalu Town Center store is projected to open in early 2009, with a freestanding store and pharmacy of 16,000 square feet, although it measures about 30,000 square feet total, including the mezzanine and basement, according to Mark Holz, Longs' spokesman.
The Dowling Co. is developing Kulamalu Town Center.
The store will utilize recyclable materials and be the first newly constructed Longs to be outfitted with solar photovoltaic panels.
An 84.5-kilowatt PV system is expected to produce 150,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year.
Headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., Longs last week also announced that CVS Caremark Corp. of Woonsocket, R.I., has agreed to acquire it for $2.9 billion, including the assumption of debt.
The stores in Hawaii, however, will continue to operate under the Longs Drugs name.
Ray Yamamoto, a longtime Pukalani resident and store manager of Longs in Kihei, will be the store manager of the Longs at Kulamalu Town Center. Yamamoto, a 37-year veteran of Longs Drugs, will oversee a staff of between 40 to 45 employees.
The nearest Longs Drugs currently serving the area is at the Maui Mall in Kahului.
Longs operates three full-sized stores and two Longs Pharmacy stores on Maui. The Maui store will be followed by another one under development by the Robertson Properties Group at its new retail center, Pearl City Gateway.
"We are very excited about our new store in the Pukalani - upcountry area of Maui," said Bob Ingersoll, Longs' group vice president for Hawaii operations.
Ingersoll said this was Longs' first large format store to be built in Hawaii since 1999.
Longs failed to get a variance to install a sign on the side of its store that would be visible from Kula Highway.
Warren McCord, president of Maui Outdoor Circle, was against Longs' installation of the sign because Upcountry Maui should be kept rural, he said.