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TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

Dearth of
downtown denizens

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The "glass" of downtown real estate is either half-empty or half-full, either a dead zone or ripe with opportunity, depending upon your perspective.

"We have more vacancies, ground-floor vacancies including in Chinatown than we've ever had," said Andrew Friedlander, chief executive of Colliers Monroe & Friedlander.

He doesn't believe the Sept. 11 terrorist attack can be blamed in this case.

Competition from the nearby Ward complex has taken away business, he said, but overall, "Downtown is really hard for retailers, including food retailers.

"It's a five-day-a-week, primarily lunch venue. If you go to most shopping centers and strip malls it's potentially seven days a week, sometimes breakfast, certainly lunch and dinner (business)," he said.

"Unless you have a specific niche lunch market and you do well, downtown is hard."

Friedlander praised the joint federal state and county "Weed and Seed" program for its work in weeding out the seedier side of the downtown area.

"Hawaii Theater and Indigo are also very, very complimentary toward the regentrification of downtown," he said. Nevertheless, spaces always turn over, Friedlander said.

"There are success stories," Friedlander said, citing Joe Pacific Shoe Repair.

A charter tenant of Ala Moana Center, Joe Pacific relocated to Kapiolani Boulevard in 1987 where it stayed for 14 years.

For the past three and a half years the shop has been at 126 Queen St.

Robert Lopresti came to Hawaii in 1986 to mind the store and bought the business a short time later.

Parking is difficult Monday through Friday, but he said, "I get a lot of foot traffic." He's open Saturdays when "you can park anywhere."

"I used to be closed but it's very profitable to be open," he said.

Is it a case of emergency high-heel repairs for Saturday night soirees?

"I just had one leave," he laughed. "I get a lot of that, but that's what I'm here for."

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com