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Neighbors decry Plans by the world's largest retailer to build a massive two-store complex at the Keeaumoku superblock "will deeply, heavily impact" the neighbors, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. officials were told.
plan for Wal-Mart,
Sam’s Club
Traffic congestion and reduced
parking at the Keeaumoku site
are among the concerns citedBy Mary Adamski
and Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin"This will impact on our quality of life," said Doris Nakamura, after company representatives described the plans at the Ala Moana/Kakaako Neighborhood Board meeting last night.
Nakamura, whose family owns an apartment building adjoining the site, questioned the plan to have all delivery trucks -- an average of 20 container loads a day -- enter the property from Makaloa Street.
Wal-Mart Stores announced yesterday it plans to build both a Wal-Mart and a Sam's Club, with combined retail space of 300,000 square feet, on the vacant site just off Kapiolani Boulevard.
Wal-Mart's first development in urban Honolulu will take up 8.5 acres of the 10.5-acre property bordered by Keeaumoku, Rycroft, Sheridan and Makaloa streets.
Pending building permits, construction is slated to begin next spring and the company expects both stores to open by the spring of 2002. The complex will include 1,500 parking stalls on six levels for customers and employees, spokeswoman Cynthia Lin said.Wal-Mart real estate representative Jon-Eric Greene told the board and audience that keeping the trucks off Keeaumoku Street was one of the ways the retailer has heeded traffic-handling advice from the city. Changes the retailer will pay for include:
Left turns out of the property will be banned and some existing metered street parking on the perimeter will be deleted for safety, Wal-Mart planners told the crowd.A new traffic signal at Keeaumoku and Kanunu Streets.
An employee at the HMSA Center at 718 Keeaumoku St. complained that removing on-street parking is not fair to people working in the area. She said there are 1,500 HMSA employees in the area.
"It's not the right fit, I was hoping for something that would cause property values to go up," said board member Patrick McCain. "I'm a business advocate but you have a right to be selfish about your neighborhood." McCain presented a motion at a previous board meeting, calling for the board to disapprove of bringing the big box retailer into the neighborhood. The motion died in a 5-1 vote with three people abstaining.
Jordan Avilla, an Ala Moana Center employee, said "Traffic congestion is going to start from the freeway. We already have congestion around Ala Moana and I can't see adding more."
"I'd rather see a commercial operation there than high-rises," said board member Joyce Kurtz. "I'd rather this than see it full of bars." She said the six-story parking structure "will still allow residents on Amana and Kanunu street to have some view."
George Koutouzos, a Kaheka Street resident, said "whatever residents say, most of the people will like it. You can buy a lot of stuff cheaper, I go to Pearl City to shop at Sam's Club.
"It's been an empty lot there for years, full of rubbish. Neighbors got used to it, but you had to know it would be developed."
Koutouzos said Wal-Mart's description of handling all delivery trucks within the property sounds better than what he and others surrounding the Daiei store a block away endure. "Trucks line up and wait more than a block away, that's a real traffic jam."
Lance Marugame, who operates a Sheridan Street hairstyling business, said "our concern is (losing on-street) parking for our business. But I remember what was there," referring to the proliferation of hostess and strip bars. "There's a lot of elderly residents, it will be good for them; they can walk over there."
A Wal-Mart store will take up the ground floor, topped by the members-only Sam's Club.
The retailer is reviewing specific design plans, and expects to finish by the end of the year, Greene said. The building will take a "territorial Hawaii" theme, with landscaping to include monkeypod and palm trees to "give it a proper sense of place relative to Hawaii." The stores will be about 55 feet in height, with another 10 feet of parking on top, he said.
"Say goodbye to retail as we know it," retail analyst and commercial real estate agent Stephany Sofos said.
The development would be bigger than the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, and its prices would pull business from everywhere in Honolulu, including Ala Moana Center, Sofos said.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based company employs 2,400 people in Hawaii at Wal-Mart stores in Mililani and Kunia, Kailua-Kona, Hilo and Lihue, and a Sam's Club in Pearl City. Wal-Mart, which has a total of 1.14 million employees worldwide and more than 3,000 U.S. stores, plans to open 200 stores and 25 Sam's Clubs in the United States over the next three years. It estimates nationwide sales could grow 15 percent this year to $190 billion from $165 billion last year.
The company announced in January that it agreed to buy the Keeaumoku site. At the time, it had not decided whether it would built a Wal-Mart, Sam's Club or a combination. Developers have kicked around proposals for the vacant Keeaumoku site since the late 1980s. Haseko Hawaii Inc. once planned a $400 million retail, luxury condominium and office project. The collapse of the state's economy stopped the project.
Wal-Mart has not completed its purchase of the site from the Wichman Family Trust, nor has it applied for any building permits. Greene said Wal-Mart will finish designing first. The block will not require rezoning. The site's sales price has not been revealed but its worth has been estimated at more than $30 million.