By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
A line of afternoon commuter traffic and theater-goers backs up
in the northbound lane of Kahekili Highway yesterday afternoon.
The Koolau Stadium 10 movie theater has brought big changes
to what is now the Koolau Shopping Center.

Theater transforms
Temple Valley

Some businesses thrive but
some are nearly empty, and
parking is now at
a premium

By Craig Gima
Star-Bulletin

The Force came to Temple Valley, and Danny Lopes sat on a bench in front of Times Super Market and watched it change his neighborhood.

As Lopes and his friends looked on, parking attendants using orange flashlights moved traffic along as cars searched for parking in front of the new Koolau Stadium 10 movie theater.

"Even when Payless was here, it wasn't like this," said Lopes' friend Alfred Suficiencia Jr.

"It's big time," Lopes said about the theater opening. Last night was the second night in a row that the group walked across the street from Lopes' house to the shopping center to watch all the excitement.

"Yesterday was the most massive day of all," he said.

The attraction of $1 movies backed up traffic almost to Likelike Highway, and parking was at a premium. Last night wasn't as bad, but many locals weren't used to the crowds at their neighborhood shopping center.

"They're so used to parking close to the store, when they park far away, they have a hard time finding their car," Suficiencia said.

Barnette Jumawan, who has lived in Temple Valley all of her life, had her husband drop her off in front of the store while he looked for parking.

"I think it's a little bit inconvenient if you want to go to the market," she said. "I went in there and it's almost empty."

In contrast to the lines in front of the theater, there were no lines at the Video Station movie rental shop, and other longtime businesses were also nearly empty.

But some stores were thriving.

"This shopping center is alive," said Patrick Lee of the newly opened Loco Moco Drive Inn No. 6.

"We opened this because we saw the sign the theater was going to open," said April Light of Bobby's Bistro, a Thai and Italian restaurant that opened last week.

"We needed something like this," said Sharon Solomon, who lives in Punaluu and got a job at the theater.

"This town was dying. People would go to Pearlridge. You've never seen it like this before."

At the bench in front of Times, Charliy Kuheana showed off an unused movie ticket from "Star Wars" that he planned to keep as a memento of the day the theater opened.

"I'm going to put it in my showcase," he said.

Before she went to find her car, Jumawan noticed another change at the shopping center.

"It's no longer called Temple Valley," she said pointing at the new sign next to McDonald's.

The sign said "Koolau Shopping Center," just like the name of the theater.