Developer blends shopping, arts at Waikiki complex

2100 Kalakaua Avenue, a retailing complex opening in Waikiki, will include upscale stores such as Tiffany & Co., Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel. Honu Group Inc.

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

When 2100 Kalakaua, the $140 million Waikiki retail center, celebrates its grand opening this week, no one will be happier — or more relieved — than Mona Abadir.

Abadir, chief operating officer of the Honu Group Inc. development company and a prominent player in recent efforts to bolster Hawai'i's arts and culture scene, says the project's six-year gestation period has been taxing, but worth it.

"It seems like it's been a lot harder than childbirth," says Abadir, a mother of three. "Until you start building, you don't realize what goes into development. All the work is on the front end — buying the land, giving leases, going through the design process, getting permits. I don't want to say that building is easy, but by the time you build, you're almost there."

Al Green will perform at the charity benefit grand opening event of 2100 Kalakaua Avenue, a retailing complex opening in Waikiki on Friday. Gannett News Service

It's the second major grand opening in as many months for Abadir. Appointed chairwoman of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts in February, Abadir oversaw the completion of the long-awaited Hawai'i State Art Museum, which opened on Nov. 9.

The museum was designed, in part, to help revitalize interest in the Capital District.

Abadir said the 2100 Kalakaua project, on the Convention Center side of Waikiki, could serve as another important point of connection in a statewide network of cultural and commercial centers.

The new 110,000-square-foot shopping complex sits across the street from another Honu Group project, the King Kalakaua Plaza, which houses Niketown, the All-Star Cafe, and Banana Republic.

While some have questioned the wisdom of developing a luxury boutique center, given recent economic trends, Abadir said plans to integrate retailers with local arts and culture organizations will help to assure long-term success, particularly with Japanese visitors.

"It seems like it's been a lot harder than childbirth," said Mona Abadir, chief operating officer of the Honu Group Inc. development company. Advertiser library photo

The marriage of commerce and culture is nothing new to Abadir, who has built a life and a career around such unions. In her 25 years in retail marketing and development, Abadir has held key positions at Anne Klein and Co., The North Face, The Pebble Beach Resorts, and Sony Entertainment.

She partnered with Andrew Smith and Thomas Applegate to form Honu Group, a property development and management company specializing in retail and mixed-use projects, nearly a decade ago. Since that time, Abadir, a native Californian, has made her home in Hawai'i and has been active with a laundry list of community improvement, economic development, and arts and culture organizations.

Abadir sat down recently to discuss her views on art, business and everything in between.

The Advertiser: Where do you think you get your interest in arts and culture?

Abadir: My mother immigrated from Norway and my father was born in Alexandria in Egypt. They thought it was really important to keep the connection to their cultures, so every couple of years we'd save up money and go by ship — in the old days — or by plane to Norway. We'd travel across Europe to get to Egypt, and do the same thing coming back. We also went all around the U.S., camping and doing a lot of outdoor, nature types of activities. So I grew up encouraged to see the world and support diversity — to support culture and the arts. It's kind of a way of life for me.

So how did you end up in marketing and development?

I majored in psychology at the University of California-Berkeley and at one time I wanted to be a psychiatrist (laughs). But I also love business. My dad has his Ph.D in organic chemistry and he ended up doing global trading in ores — in minerals — all over the world. I worked with him from my high school days. By training and through my experiences in retail and marketing, my love is business.

In fact, you started your own business right out of college. What was that like?

I started a manufacturing business in Los Angeles and I had representatives in all the key markets in the U.S. I had to do all the financing, help with the selling, even did the shipping. It was a way to work for myself and be in a creative, fun business. It's a great way to learn when you're 22 years old.

On the surface, Anne Klein, Pebble Beach, The North Face and Sony don't seem to have much in common. Was there a common thread in the opportunities you pursued?

I worked with I. Magnin for five years and that taught me about luxury brands and the importance of quality and longevity in terms of being able to reinvent yourself. I've tried to work in industries that have quality and that can extend their brand, or extend their lifestyle, if you will.

When I was with Anne Klein in the 1980s, they were one of the premier American name brands and they had just started their secondary lines.

When I was first contacted for Pebble Beach, they were just developing the idea of lifestyle golf, and I got to help with their marketing to create the Pebble Beach Resorts. Again, it was extending the lifestyle but maintaining the quality. The key to that is, how do you extend a brand or an image and still maintain the 'specialness' of it all? You can apply the same thinking to Hawai'i.

By promoting cultural tourism, for example?

To compete on an international level as a destination, we have to make the experience more exciting for the visitor, and for our residents. People want to shop here, but they want other things as well. They want to experience our arts and culture. They're well informed and multi-dimensional — that's how we all travel now.

What sort of returns do we get from investing, directly or indirectly, in arts and culture?

I think having an appreciation for forms of art — visual, performing, architecture, even art in nature — is part of who we are as human beings. On a philosophical level, I feel it's the way that we all connect, so if we cultivate our senses to appreciate art forms, that is the way we can connect with anybody in the world.

I think we have all these wonderful pockets of art and culture in Hawai'i, starting with our indigenous people and including all the people here who are connected back to their homelands. Through appreciating the art and culture and art of others, we can come together and create a better place to live.

One way to do that is by treating Hawai'i as a global destination — not just a national city, but a unique place in the world. If we all connect on that higher level, what happens is you stimulate the economy, support education, and encourage cultural tourism.

And where should support for arts and culture programs come from?

The arts are for everyone. I believe it needs to be supported by the private sector, the city, the state and the federal government. It cannot just be depended on one or the other.

How do private developers like Honu Group fit in?

We can set an example in terms of what we do through the corporate power of our global retailers. Chanel and Tiffany have tremendous brand equity. When any salon gets behind culture and the arts, that creates an effect that's bigger than any one person. When you have that kind of power behind a corporate brand, it creates business and economic opportunities.

I think every corporation can do this. It's a matter of citizenship. You've got to give something back. When Nike came, they invested in sports and fitness activities here because that's their area of expertise. Our luxury fashion people — what they do is all about arts and culture and history. For them to umbrella under the arts and culture makes sense.

Correction: Gucci is one of the tenants at the 2100 Kalakaua retail complex. Information in a previous version of this story contained incorrect information.