Costco will
build new store
in Waipio

The warehouse chain plans
its largest Oahu site yet, near
rival Sam's Club

By Rob Perez
Star-Bulletin

Costco plans to open its third and largest Oahu store next year in Waipio Gentry, hoping to draw shoppers from the growing communities in Central and Leeward Oahu.

The company has signed an agreement to purchase a roughly 15-acre site along Ka Uka Boulevard at Gentry Business Park, just off the H-2 Freeway. A price was not disclosed.

Costco expects to close the deal by the end of next month and begin construction early next year, said Joel Benoliel, the company's senior vice president for real estate. If that schedule holds, the Waipio outlet would open in the summer, he said yesterday.

The store will employ about 175 to 200 workers, with roughly half of them full-time, Benoliel said.

The Waipio store will be about 150,000 square feet, compared with 137,000 at the chain's Salt Lake site and 110,000 in Hawaii Kai.

Costco Wholesale Corp., based in Issaquah, Wash., is an international operator of members-only warehouse stores.

"We're very pleased that a highly sophisticated organization like Costco has determined that Gentry Business Park is the right place to be," said Joe Fadrowsky, vice president of Gentry Pacific.

Costco's four existing Hawaii stores -- the others are on Maui and the Big Island -- are popular with price-conscious shoppers.

The fifth will bring Costco in direct competition with Sam's Club, another big-box, members-only retailer. Sam's, which is owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., has a store a few miles away at Pearl Highlands.

"We do welcome the competition," said Jim Hike, Sam's general manager.

Costco's Waipio site will be easier to reach from a freeway than Sam's, a factor that should help attract shoppers.

Edith Shigemoto, a Makakilo resident who shops at both chains, said the easy access and closeness to Makakilo will prompt her to shop more often at Costco than she does now.

Shigemoto said she hardly goes to the Salt Lake store because of the distance and inconvenience.

"It's real humbug going all that way just to buy food stuff," she said.

Having two competing warehouse stores so close to each other also will make comparison shopping more convenient for Leeward consumers, she said. "That's the whole thing with shopping today -- comparing prices."

Benoliel said he expects the Salt Lake store to lose some business to Waipio, but the loss will be more than offset by new business from Leeward and Central Oahu shoppers.

And Costco expects to take even more business from Sam's, Benoliel said.

"This is a bold move, but it's the right one to make," he said.