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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Builders and gossipers
equally busy in KailuaKailua residents are impressed with the speed at which the new Longs Drug Stores building is going up.
But rumors about what will fill the old space are flying even faster.
One theory indicates there will be a food court and a national chain restaurant.
Rumors and theories are all that's available, however, as nothing is set in stone, according to Mitch D'Olier, president and chief executive officer of Kaneohe Ranch Co. Ltd.
"In terms of which tenants are the right tenants, we're not there yet," he said.
The new Longs building, adjacent to the old, is slated for completion in February, "but I think they'll have tenant improvements to do," said D'Olier.
Those would include installation of fixtures, arrangement of merchandise and other set-up activities.
The existing Kailua Longs measures about 18,000 square feet, with just enough space between aisles for shopping carts to pass, if shoppers are paying attention, that is.
The new space will encompass 30,000 square feet, or about the same size as Foodland's Kailua store.
D'Olier can talk about some aspects of the plan for the old building.
"We're going to make the space smaller. We're going to take off part of the street side of the building to create a plaza."
If you were looking at the Long's building from Macy's, you would notice that a part of the building has a lower ceiling height, that was added in 1983, he said. "We're going to take that off to complement the plaza."
A pedestrian walkway will wend through the property to the parking lot or potentially, a proposed three- to four-story parking garage, the fate of which has yet to be determined. The idea of a parking garage has drawn some community opposition.
Change doesn't come quickly to Kailua, not without many meetings.
Marketing research consultant Marty Plotnick, president of Creative Resources Inc., made his once-every-60-day visit to Kailua on Friday.
"Each 60 days I come out here, it's harder and harder to park. That was the first thing that struck me," said the former Kailua resident.
He moved out of the Windward community 20 years ago because, "I got tired of buying water pumps for my car."
Before the move, Plotnick said he never worried about traffic.
"The Holiday Mart (now Daiei) parking lot was never full. They'd let you take the cart home. They knew you'd bring it back."
Leaving Kailua around noon Friday, "the amount of traffic struck me. It's denser and denser every time I'm out there."
"If you already have the traffic without the buildout, it's inevitable you're going to have to come up with parking. You're going to have to do it. Everybody has become car-centric," Plotnick said.
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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
