Navy wants complex rebuilt
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
The U.S. Navy is searching for a private developer to rebuild Moanalua Shopping Center in return for long-term leasehold ownership of the retail complex near Pearl Harbor.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
The project aims to move several Navy facilities at the Pearl Harbor base into the center, which is off base. The center would continue to be open to the public and would be upgraded — all at no cost to the government.
The Navy wants a private developer to rebuild Moanalua Shopping Center as part of a military strategy to privatize construction projects. The new center would include several Navy facilities now at the Pearl Harbor base.
The initiative, announced yesterday, is the latest of several privatization efforts by the military in Hawai'i, where Army, Navy and Air Force contracts have been issued to private contractors to rebuild or renovate housing in return for rental income.
Moanalua Shopping Center was built in the early 1950s on Navy property about a mile from Pearl Harbor's Nimitz Gate and houses about 35 retail, restaurant and service tenants.
"It's a tired center, and it's showing its age," said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis of the Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs Office.
As part of the deal, the developer would get a lease of up to 40 years on the 15-acre site surrounded by Valkenburgh Street, Bougainville Drive, De Haven Street and Warden Avenue.
The developer also would be required to provide space at the rebuilt center for Navy facilities such as the family housing office at the existing 65,500-square-foot center, plus other facilities now on base, including a personal property shipping office and family service center.
Developers will be able to select which tenants remain and whether to expand the retail complex. Work could begin within year, the Navy said.
Interested developers, contractors and suppliers should contact Lt. Cmdr. Charlene Mowery at 472-1085 or pacdivmoanalua@efdpac.navfac.navy.mil.
A project briefing will be held Tuesday from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Hilton Hawaiian Village. To register for the briefing, visit www.esol.navfac.navy.mil and use project reference No. N6274203RP00100.
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
