NAWILIWILI — If Harbor Mall is the prototype, the shopping center of the new millennium will be about much more than just restaurants and shops. New owner Greg Allen and family are working feverishly toward what they hope will be
NAWILIWILI — If Harbor Mall is the prototype, the shopping center of the new
millennium will be about much more than just restaurants and shops.
New
owner Greg Allen and family are working feverishly toward what they hope will
be a sold-out grand re-opening for the former Menehune Shopping Village and
Pacific Ocean Plaza along Rice Street here.
A lu’au grounds, wedding
chapel, boardwalk along Nawiliwili Stream, outrigger canoes offering visitors
and residents rides up and down the stream, and more are planned following
massive renovations to the mall now best known for Kaua’i Chop Suey, Tokyo
Lobby and Cafe Portofino restaurants.
Allen, a Wailua resident and
entrepreneur, bought the property for just over $1 million (it listed for $1.6
million), or around $33 a square foot for the 30,000 square foot mall on three
acres.
He figures if he puts between $15 and $20 per square foot of
improvements in, or as much as $750,000, he can turn the once-neglected space
into a “functional” retail mall.
The tenants have suffered due to poor
visibility, poor access, poor management and other factors, but at 65 cents a
square foot were getting probably the best retail lease rates on the island,
Allen said.
He plans on keeping the rates lower than other nearby malls,
partly by not trying to enforce percentage-of-sales rents most other malls
charge.
Passersby have already noticed and commented favorably on the
improvement in mall looks just by Allen clearing overgrown foliage around the
center.
He is creating, he hopes, a place where visitors can come “that
says ‘aloha,'” with a Hawaiian atmosphere. Only native vegetation will welcome
visitors and residents who take a stroll along the boardwalk that will
crisscross Nawiliwili Stream in at least two locations.
The building
improvements, including expansive lanai for the second-floor restaurant spaces
looking out toward Kalapaki Bay and Nawiliwili Harbor, are expected done by
year’s end.
Cafe Portofino is the only second-floor eatery now, but that is
likely to change soon. Interest is already being shown in a 3,500-square-foot
restaurant space immediately adjacent to Cafe Portofino.
The improvements
around the stream will take about another six months, he estimates. More
parking is part of the plan, too.
“I have a history of doing this,” Allen
said of the metamorphosis of Harbor Mall that has his tenants excited.
He
and his father and family own around 100 apartment units in Utah, and he and
his father as principals of Harbor Mall both like to transform neglected spaces
into something they, tenants and the entire community can be proud of, he
added.
Allen’s brother and sisters, including 19-year-old Jonathan Allen,
who is running the refurbishing work along with local contractor Curtis Law,
are minority partners in Harbor Mall.
“So it’s basically a family deal,” he
said.
His father owns land at ‘Anini, and owns a large communications
company. Greg Allen has Motorola dealerships on Kaua’i and Maui, and his
Pacific Audio Kaua’i installs high-end home theaters on the island.
To keep
himself just busy enough, he also deals Malibu water ski boats on the
island.
Tara Blackburn is the office manager in the Harbor Mall management
office, and currently there are two painters, two landscapers and two handymen
on staff.
“I plan to make this the most beautiful mall on Kaua’i,” said
Allen, who is hoping to improve on the current 52 percent occupancy before a
grand re-opening bash is scheduled.
Kiosks will be allowed in the central
courtyard currently undergoing a change from concrete to garden, and native
plants are going to be the rule throughout.
Allen is hopeful that either a
local (ala Sam Choy) or national (like Outback Steakhouse) restaurant will want
to open here, and through his connections on Maui and elsewhere has been
negotiating with separate Mexican and Greek restaurant owners.
Though
advertising the retail space availability only in The Garden Island currently,
the mall has garnered new businesses like a day health spa, Island Breeze
Boutique (a bath and body shop), and other new tenants.
Allen would like to
see a coffee shop and breakfast restaurant in the mix, an activities desk in
one of the kiosks, and possibly an artists’ cooperative. A surf shop owner has
shown interest as well, he said.
Remodeling of Kaua’i Chop Suey and Cafe
Portofino are planned for the near future as well.
After he, family and
workers clean out Nawiliwili Stream, he hopes to enlist volunteers to
hand-clean the stream underneath the two concrete bridges, and eventually offer
outrigger canoe rides up and down the stream.
His eyes lit up when told
that there used to be an active Kalapaki Bay resort association, with what is
now the Marriott as the major player. A hotel that employs as many people as
Marriott does is heaven for a person looking for volunteers to clean a
stream.
Allen, 37, feels the location on Rice Street, which the visitor
publications list as the main route from Lihu’e Airport to the South Shore and
back, can be a positive once the facade of the mall is transformed into an
open, welcoming look.
Being close to Nawiliwili Harbor and the cruise ships
that arrive regularly is a major opportunity Allen also hopes to capitalize on.
The Marriott, Anchor Cove across the street, and other draws to the area should
make the mall a success, he feels.
“I think we should be the dining,
strolling, shopping mecca for the island, really.”
He bought much of the
land where the mall sits outright, and holds a lease on some from the Lovell
family. Gabriel I, who lived most of his life on the harbor side of Nawiliwili
Stream, came home from Honolulu recently, and Allen said I is pleased with
plans to spruce up his former stomping grounds.
Business Editor Paul
C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
