|
Waikiki marketplace
plans are scaled back
The Queen Emma Foundation
says costs from its medical center
affect the renovation
A planned $150 million transformation of the International Market Place, a major visitor attraction at the epicenter of Waikiki, has been downgraded to a simple renovation.
The Queen Emma Foundation, the property's landowner, had planned to raze the circa-1950s bazaar this summer to make way for a more upscale retail and entertainment center, but financial constraints have forced the foundation to reconsider, said Mark Hastert, chief executive of the Queen Emma Foundation.
"The Queen Emma Foundation plays a critical financial support role for the Queen's Medical Center," Hastert said, "and changing conditions, including increasing costs in the construction and health-care industries, along with other plans for the medical center, required that we reassess the development plans for the International Market Place."
Renovation of the marketplace and neighboring Waikiki Town Center buildings will take place during the next two to three years, the foundation said.
The land on which the market sits was once owned by Queen Emma, wife of King Kamehameha IV, who left the money to what was then Queen's Hospital when she died in 1878.
A rejuvenated center would have created a new gathering place in Waikiki and increased the value of surrounding properties, but it also would have closed many small businesses that found their niche among the volcano-shaped candles, plastic hula skirts and inexpensive aloha wear.
The Queen Emma Foundation released ambitious redevelopment plans for the cluttered outdoor market in 2003, a few years after acquiring the center from leaseholder WDC Venture, which had filed for bankruptcy. Up to that point, the Queen Emma Foundation had been in a passive, rent-collecting role while WDC Venture ran the market.
Renewal plans for the 4.5-acre parcel once included new open-air shops and restaurants, a center for storytellers, another for ceremonies and entertainment, and a mix of carts and kiosks.
"We have been studying several alternative approaches and came to the conclusion that a more moderate renovation program would better fit our current overall needs," Hastert said.
The news that those plans have been scrapped will be disappointing to some, said Jeff Hall, senior director of research at CB Richard Ellis Hawaii.
"It's a shame. In every recent market report, I've been telling people how great the International Market Place's redevelopment would be for Waikiki," Hall said. The aging structure is badly in need of an update, he said. The foundation has acknowledged that some of the center's buildings have termite damage and other maintenance problems.
Waikiki retailers, especially those in the marketplace, are likely to have mixed reaction to the change, said Bob Taylor, president of Maui Divers Jewelry.
"We're disappointed that they aren't going through with the project as originally announced," said Taylor, who expected to open a large retail store in the new complex, which would have added to the current revitalization of Waikiki.
On the other hand, the foundation's decision will allow Taylor to keep the two Maui Divers stores and three Pick-A-Pearl carts that he has in the marketplace, he said.
"There really is a tremendous amount of retail being done in its current condition," Taylor said.
"I believe that the plan that they originally had would have made a popular destination even more popular; however, I also feel that whatever renovations that they do will just attract more visitors."
Marketplace tenants, who have been on month-to-month leases since the 1990s when redevelopment plans began to surface, have been notified of the foundation's change in plans. However, details of the renovation process, including targets, expenses and a precise timetable, have yet to be developed, said Kara Hughes, a spokeswoman for the Queen Emma Foundation.
"It's still really early in the process," she said.
When the renovation begins, it will be the marketplace's first big revitalization since the 1970s, when the last major building was added.
The foundation's plans will retain the marketplace's unique character and allow the center to remain open during renovations, Hughes said.
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