Sun Lee, owner of Taiyo Noodles on Kapiolani Boulevard, takes a lunch order from Gail Goo, left, her husband, Gordon, and William Fung. The restaurant is among those facing a possible move should Nordstrom Inc. build a store at that location near the intersection of Keeaumoku Street.
Crowded out: Ala Moana
businesses face ousterEight Kapiolani Boulevard businesses
will have to move when a new
Nordstrom breaks ground
Pork fried noodles, shrimp fried rice, and free kim chee.
Three reasons why Taiyo Noodle restaurant owner Sun Lee said her customers will follow her even after she's kicked out to make room for a Nordstrom department store.
Of course, she'll have to find another location first.
"If it's in town and there's enough parking, then they will come," Lee said.
Nordstrom Inc. said on Monday it plans to open a full-size department store -- equal to half the size of Kahala Mall -- at Ala Moana Center by late 2007 or early 2008. The store would sit on the lot bordered by Kapiolani Boulevard, Kona Street, Keeaumoku Street and the Ala Moana Pacific Center.
News that Lee's restaurant, along with about seven other businesses, would eventually have to leave to make room for the department store spread fast yesterday. By lunchtime customers were asking waitresses, "So where are you going?"
"I've been coming here for two to three years now," said Hawaii Medical Service Association employee Paul Ventura. "Mostly I order the same thing ... so I hope they move somewhere close by ... like within a mile." The HMSA building is just a few blocks mauka of Taiyo on Keeaumoku Street.
But while Taiyo has been at the same location for 10 years, other businesses just got there. Last Sanctuary, a comic book store, moved in shortly after Thanksgiving 2002.
"I think everybody knew that this was coming sooner or later ... we just didn't know if it would be today, tomorrow, or next week," said store manager Brett Joubert. "I mean, look at how much this area is developing.
"We'd be pretty ignorant to think we'd just be here forever."
The sentiment was shared by owners of businesses that had been there for much longer.
For 45 years, Bakery Kapiolani has stood along Kapiolani Boulevard and the owners said there has always been a fear that they would be replaced.
"That's why I opened up our King Street location 25 years ago," said bakery president Ted Imai. "I thought they were going to open up something back then and we would have to go.
"This time though, I think they may actually build something."
The King Street bakery site closed eight years ago.
"Well, they definitely need to spruce up this area," said Debbie Furumoto, who works at First Hawaiian Bank across Kapiolani. "But it's sad because it comes at the expense of kicking out old-time merchants."
"I want to shop at Nordstrom's," said Phyllis Klein, also a First Hawaiian Bank employee, "as long as Taiyo Noodle and the bakery stay nearby and keep their businesses going."
