Honolulu Star-Bulletin Business /2005/05/18/

[ FAST FACTS HAWAII ]

New Lowe's in Iwilei to open in 2008

Home-improvement retailer Lowe's Cos. confirmed yesterday it will build a 117,000-square-foot store on Pacific Street in Iwilei, on the corner of Nimitz Highway.

The site, which Lowe's purchased for more than $35 million in March, is within walking distance from competitors Home Depot and City Mill. Also nearby is Costco, Kmart and an under-construction Best Buy.

The Lowe's store, which is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2008, will also include a 31,500-square-foot garden center. A typical Lowe's store of that size creates up to 175 new jobs, Lowe's said.

The store will be fourth in Hawaii for the Mooresville, N.C.-based company, which has 1,100 stores nationwide and posted 2004 sales of $36.5 billion.

Hawaiian Air adds San Jose flight

Hawaiian Airlines will add a daily flight between Honolulu and San Jose, Calif., beginning Oct. 1, the carrier said yesterday.

The flight, on Boeing 767 jets, will leave Mineta San Jose International Airport at 9:20 a.m. and arrive in Honolulu at 11:45 a.m. The return flight will leave Honolulu at 1:30 p.m. and arrive in San Jose at 9:40 p.m.

Hawaiian already provides daily flights to San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif.

McKenna wins dealer of the year

Hawaii automobile dealer Mike McKenna was named National Dealer of the Year by the American International Automobile Dealers Association.

The association and Newsweek magazine honored McKenna yesterday in a ceremony at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C.

McKenna started his dealerships' legacy of giving away cars at high school Project Graduation parties in 1996 after fielding a request for a $100 donation to that year's graduation event at Kalaheo High School. He decided instead to donate a car on the condition that attendance at the Project Graduation party hit 95 percent. It had been 35 percent the previous year -- and went up to 97 percent that year.

Since then McKenna has donated cars to Project Graduation parties in Windward Oahu and in Kona on the Big Island, where he also has a dealership. He also has led efforts among Hawaii Volkswagen dealers to award the use of a Jetta for one year to the Hawaii teacher of the year.

Toyota is recalling 790,000 vehicles

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker, is recalling 790,000 pickups and sport-utility vehicles to fix a flawed ball joint that can make the trucks difficult to steer and cause drivers to lose control.

The recall covers 2001 through 2002 model 4Runner SUVs, 2001 through 2004 Tacoma pickups and 2002 through 2004 Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs, said Ming-Jou Chen, a spokeswoman for the automaker's Torrance, Calif.-based U.S. sales unit. Toyota filed details of the recall yesterday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, she said.

The U.S. recall is among the largest ever for the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker, which expanded U.S. sales 14 percent in the first four months of 2005, in part because of a reputation for producing relatively defect-free, durable cars and trucks.

[Hawaii Inc.]

NEW JOBS

» Patrick Klein has joined the Honolulu Star-Bulletin as classified advertising director. Klein, 27, was formerly with the Honolulu Advertiser as major accounts executive handling display and retail advertising for large national accounts such as Lowe's, Radio Shack and Sears, and large local accounts such as Longs, Bank of Hawaii and Shirokiya.

Before his latest 10-month stint at the Advertiser, Klein worked for the Japanese government for two years teaching English to public high school students in Kokura in the Fukuoka Prefecture.

He is a graduate of Maryknoll High School in Honolulu and Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., where he majored in business administration with a concentration in marketing.

» Hawaii State Federal Credit Union has hired Tricia Buskirk as creative services manager. She will be responsible for developing new loan and deposit products, directing special projects, and managing the creative team. She previously served as Del Mar Database's marketing director.

» Diagnostic Laboratory Services Inc. has appointed Jonn Ragle business development vice president. He will be responsible for overseeing company operations at Kuakini Medical Center, Castle Medical Center and at facilities in Guam and Saipan. He has been with Diagnostic Laboratory Services since 1991.