Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Xerox to move A request of Xerox Hawaii employees -- to move the company's parts warehouse out of the Nimitz Highway building where seven of their co-workers were murdered -- is about to be granted.
Nimitz workers
to Kakaako site
The shift to the former
Office Depot building on
Auahi St. comes a year
after the fatal shootingsBy Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin
Xerox expects to finish arrangements this week to lease a 30,000-square-foot, one-story building in Kakaako, recently vacated by Office Depot Inc., a broker confirmed today. Details were not disclosed.
The deal comes on the same week of the first anniversary of the fatal shooting -- the state's worst multiple murder -- last Nov. 2 at Xerox's parts warehouse at 1200 Nimitz Highway. The victims were Ron Kataoka, Ford Kanehira, Melvin Lee, John Sakamoto, Ronald Kawamae, Peter Mark and Jason Balatico.
Byran Uyesugi, a former Xerox service technician, was found guilty in August of the murders and sentenced to life in prison. The state public defender's office recently filed to appeal the ruling.
After the slayings, Xerox employees had asked the company in January to abandon its lease on Nimitz and move out of the building, said Glenn Sexton, Xerox Hawaii general manager and vice president. Sexton declined to comment on efforts to find a new property.
But Sexton noted that the signing of the lease and the anniversary of the murders are coincidental events.
Kirk Horiuchi, a real estate agent who found the new building for Xerox, confirmed the lease agreement and said it took a while for the company to find a building because there was a shortage of appropriate properties near the downtown area.
"It has taken much longer than we would have liked," Sexton said today. About 11 of Xerox's 160 Hawaii employees will move to the new location. It was not immediately clear when the move would take place.
Xerox had been looking at other locations, but few fit the technical requirements needed to house the company's parts distribution center, Sexton said. For example, Xerox needed a loading zone.
The employees said they haven't minded the wait, Sexton noted. "They wanted to make sure we chose a good place."
Meanwhile, Xerox has tried other ways of easing the discomfort of workers, Sexton said. The company has kept employees updated on the move. Company meetings are no longer held on the second floor at Nimitz, where the shootings took place.And a memorial will be held Thursday in honor of the murdered workers.
The leasehold property, located at 746 Auahi St., is one of two buildings on 2.73 acres owned by Kamehameha Schools. A representative of the private trust declined comment today.
Sexton speculated Xerox would have to make significant upgrades to its new property, but did not offer specifics.
Office Depot most recently occupied the building, but moved out in July after it opened another Oahu store in March 1999 at the corner of Auahi and Kamakee streets, four blocks away.
Sexton said Xerox has not officially told employees of the move to Kakaako, but expects them to agree with it. "It's good news for all of us. It has been difficult," he said.
Xerox killings
Uyesugi verdict