Home Depot seeks Kaua'i site

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Home Depot is negotiating with landowners on Kaua'i to open what would be the home-improvement retail giant's first store on that island possibly by the end of next year.

Chuck Sifuentes, a Home Depot spokesman in California, said yesterday that the retailer is in talks for a possible site, but plans "are not set in stone."

But a Kaua'i County official said the retailer is preparing land-use permits for developing a store on a piece of Grove Farm property in Lihu'e, and hopes to open the store by December 2003.

"It seems like it's a go," said Bryan Mamaclay, a county planner who met with Home Depot officials last month. Mamaclay said the proposed Home Depot site has been used as a temporary driving range for Grove Farm's Puakea Golf Course.

Grove Farm officials could not be reached for comment yesterday. Grove Farm, which was purchased in December 2000 by AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case, has been working to redesign and expand the 10-hole golf course.

The landowner also has been working on plans to renovate and expand the neighboring Kukui Grove Center, Kaua'i's largest mall.

The planned store would be the fifth in the state for Home Depot, which has two stores on O'ahu, one on Maui and one in Kona on the Big Island that is under construction and scheduled to open late this year or early next year.

The typical Home Depot store ranges from 105,000 square feet to 115,000 square feet, excluding exterior garden centers that range from 15,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet.

Each store employs between 125 and 175 or more full- and part-time workers, Sifuentes said.