Fujifilm operations heading to Waipahu

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Central OÎahu Writer

WAIPAHU — In the latest good news for Waipahu's economy, Fujifilm will announce plans today to build a 55,000-square-foot processing plant/warehouse facility at the Mill Town Center business and industrial park next year.

Fujifilm and Mill Town Center landowner Alexander & Baldwin Inc. completed a deal yesterday for the purchase of a three-acre parcel at the site of the former Waipahu Sugar Mill.

The company is expected to reveal more details today. Parties to the agreement would not disclose the purchase price of the parcel.

George Otsuka, treasurer and general manager of Fuji Photo Film Hawai'i Inc., said construction could begin in two weeks, with the facility ready by August.

"We would like the opening of our new offices to coincide with our company's 30th anniversary of operating in Hawai'i," Otsuka told the Waipahu Neighborhood Board last night.

Otsuka said 75 company employees from its Ala Moana sales and marketing office and processing plant at 1650 Kalakaua Ave., and its warehouse in Halawa Valley will move.

The company decided to move to Waipahu because it was "centrally located,"

Otsuka said, and its 8,000-square-foot offices were getting cramped.

"It makes more sense to have all of our offices under one roof, rather than in two locations we have right now," said Teri Dela Cruz, Fujifilm marketing director.

When the new office is open, Otsuka said the company will shut down the Halawa site, which is leased. The company is also looking for buyers for its Ala Moana property, with an asking price of $2.5 million.

The move of Fujifilm's offices to Waipahu is the latest signal that lower Waipahu may be seeing an economic resurgence since Oahu Sugar Co. shut down the town mill in 1995. The closure of the mill, along with the state recession in the 1990s and competition from "big box" stores, forced several area businesses along Waipahu Street and Waipahu Depot Road to close or move.

Richard Stack, A&B project manager for the Mill Town Center said nine businesses are at or have purchased land there, including Jade Food Products, Island Heritage and Wholesale Unlimited Inc.

Also planned for the mill area is a three-story, 50,000-square-foot Filipino community center scheduled to open in March. The Leeward YMCA moved its offices to the former mill administration buildings in 1998.

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.