Home Depot is exploring the purchase of an 8.5-acre "superblock" on Keeaumoku Street, where Wal-Mart had looked into placing a giant store. Home Depot
By Russ Lynch
considering
Keeaumoku site
Star-BulletinAtlanta-based Home Depot said today the company needs to study the location more before deciding exactly what type of store it might build and so far has signed a letter of intent to buy.
"We will take a good look at it. We'll do our homework, do our due diligence," to make sure everything would work for Home Depot, said Chuck Sifuentes, a spokesman for the Atlanta-headquartered retailer.
Sifuentes said the company does not yet know what type of store would be best for the property. "We need to have a look at what our opportunities are for the site," he said.
Home Depot opened its first Hawaii store, a 145,000-square-foot outlet in Iwilei, in September 1999. It will open a store in Kahului, Maui, on May 24 -- with 130,500 square feet of retail space and a 20,000-square-foot garden department -- and has begun construction of a Pearl City store.
The company had hoped to build a third Oahu store in Hawaii Kai but dropped the idea in the face of strong opposition from Mayor Jeremy Harris and the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had agreed to buy the superblock property and was working on plans for a Wal-Mart and a Sam's Club, with a total of some 300,000 square feet of retail space.
A month ago, however, Wal-Mart let its purchase option lapse and said it was re-evaluating the project.
That left the land's owner, the Wichman Family Trust, free to talk with other potential developers.
The price Home Depot has agreed to pay for the block bordered by Keeaumoku, Rycroft, Sheridan and Makaloa streets has not been disclosed.
Real estate experts say the land should be worth about $30 million.
Purchase agreements like Home Depot's are usually conditional on an in-depth study of the land and its surroundings, including traffic conditions; after such further study Wal-Mart let its deal lapse.