When Greg Allen, his brother and a few partners decided to take the plunge and purchase the aged and weathered Harbor Mall complex at Nawiliwili in 2000, they, like their shop owners, were banking on a booming Kaua‘i economy driven
When Greg Allen, his brother and a few partners decided to take the plunge and purchase the aged and weathered Harbor Mall complex at Nawiliwili in 2000, they, like their shop owners, were banking on a booming Kaua‘i economy driven by high-flying visitor numbers and the cruise line industry.
But then Sept. 11, 2001, brought it crashing down. Economically speaking, the Mainland got a cold, Oahu got the flu and Kaua‘i got pneumonia.
The existing cruise lines, in particular, struggled to recover, and some sold or permanently docked their aging fleets.
“At first, everybody just assumed that the cruise boats would hit a home run,” he recalled. “But then 9/11 happened. It sure was hard on the tenants when the cruise boats left.”
When the boats were a lot slower in returning than everyone had hoped, many despaired, yet some, like Allen, persevered.
For the last three years, ever since purchasing the 30-year-old mall for $1 million, he’s been plumbing money into it. It has become for him more a labor of love than a money maker.
Today, nearly $2 million in renovations, including opening up the mall’s cloistered courtyard to the road, building a circumnavigable upper floor balcony, and numerous plumping and electrical repairs, have transformed the formerly forlorn, pink building into something Allen is proud of.
More importantly, the people – and cruise ships – are back.
“Up until six months ago, we’d been putting more money into the mall instead of out,” he said. “Now, for the first time, the mall has been able to pay for itself.”
A new restaurant, Surf’s Island Seafood Grill & Longboard Bar, is in the mall, and another, Ricardo’s Mexican Grill and Aloha Pizza II, is on the way.
“We’ve got a nice diversity of tenants who compliment each others businesses, instead of repeating the same thing five times over. That’s a good thing,” Allen said.
Combined with an eclectic mix of small retailers, a used bookstore, a tattoo shop, restaurants that feature fine-dining, Japanese, and Chinese cuisine, weekly hula shows, business offices, a tour company, a car rental and others, Harbor Mall is poised to become a hub of activity.
“We’re bringing in a scooter rental, and we even supply our customers with free shuttle service to and from the cruise ships every 15 minutes,” Allen said.
He’s gonna need it. The giant luxury cruise liners Pride of Aloha and Norwegian Wind are scheduled to begin calling at Nawiliwili twice a week later this month, and others, including the Carnival Spirit, the Serenade of the Seas, MV Infinity, Island Princess, and Legends of the Seas, will join them in October, returning bird-like from their chilly relocation to Alaska during the summer cruise season.
In other words, Nawiliwili Town will soon be jumping with visitors.
It’s that kind of promise that has retailers around Nawiliwili excited about the future. Indeed, Allen is quick to note that Nawiliwili itself will soon develop an identity all its own, to the degree that he calls the area near Kalapaki Bay “Nawiliwili Town.”
“This place has so much potential,” he said, “but it’s going to take everybody to make it work. They’re going to have to keep their stores open, monitor parking, keep the place clean, build out, and adjust to the changing needs of the clients.”
That’s exactly the kind of talk that wooed Mark and Silva Morando to Harbor Mall.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to open my own restaurant,” Silva said.
Today, her Surf’s restaurant, perched on the second floor of the newly revived mall, is open for business – kind of. Last week saw the “soft opening” of the local-style seafood restaurant that promises to be all things to all palates. Offering fresh Kaua‘i seafood, steaks, and countless variations of appetizers, Surf’s is the latest addition to Harbor Mall’s family of businesses.
And like everyone at the mall, they’re brimming with excitement over the coming cruise season, when people from far and near will be rubbing elbows at their full-service bar, and listening to the cool tropical sounds of island music while enjoying Kaua‘i’s abundance out on their massive ocean-view lanai.
“We wanted to open slow, so that we didn’t overwhelm the staff,” Silva said. Still, the new restaurateur made 15 gallons of her special salad the first night of their soft opening – far more than she needed. But it’s that kind of enthusiasm that is sure to make Surf’s – and Harbor Mall – one of Kaua‘i’s best places to experience Nawiliwili.
“There’s definitely more energy here now,” says Harbor Mall Manager Pattie Rae. The mall is at 90 percent occupancy, and there’s still a few spots available. Even as visitors and locals enjoyed Surf’s opening last week, one could hear the drilling, hammering, sawing – the sound of change and growth.
Red Dirt Shirts will be moving out of their location at the mall, so more space is coming open, even as Ricardo’s Mexican Grill and Aloha Pizza II moves into the prime upper-level fronting the mall. But that kind of change keeps Allen on his toes, looking for clients who can add to the chemistry of the mall, who can bring something to the place that will draw in visitors and locals alike. Indeed, the business of a mall is a lot like the restaurant business: in order to please, you’ve got to have something for everyone’s palate, like the perfect plate lunch. And with restaurants like Surf’s and the nearby Aroma’s, Allen hopes to see Harbor Mall capture the Kaua‘i’s nightlife.
“We’d like to stay open later, so having restaurants like that will bring in a lot of people,” he said. “Think about it: where else on Kaua‘i can a person walk from their hotel room or cruise ship and shop and dine at multiple restaurants?”
By appealing to the need for nightlife, Allen figures he and other Nawiliwili business owners will keep the kind of foot traffic around that can make the difference between a good week, and a great one.
But it’s the day-time activities that are, perhaps, Nawiliwili’s greatest draw, so Allen’s mall offers everything from helicopter tours to kayak adventures, and a three-wheel scooter rental is coming soon.
It’s the kind of thing that is sure to work up a ravenous appetite for visitors, even as locals enjoy the surfing and other perks of beautiful Kalapaki Bay.
And that’s the whole idea, Allen said.
“I think people can do basically everything they want to do right here in Nawiliwili Town.
They really don’t have to go anywhere else to have it all,” he says.
