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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Market Place was unique

By Andrew Gomes and Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writers

Old age and an improving economy finally caught up with one of the last relics of "Old Waikiki" yesterday, as the owner of International Market Place announced plans to close the retail landmark and replace it with a $100 million redevelopment.

Attracting visitors to its outdoor-bazaar environment for more than four decades, the International Market Place will undergo a two-year renovation beginning in 2005. The Queen Emma Foundation will unveil project details today.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The announcement yesterday by The Queen Emma Foundation, which plans to start rebuilding in mid-2005, was long expected by some, though many are sorry to see the nearly 50-year-old jungle-like shopping village go.

"This is why this is unique," said Richard Helm, a visitor from Las Vegas who gestured at the banyan trees towering above the maze of kiosks, stores, artisans and eateries. "It hasn't changed."

Helm's wife, Edel, added: "I love to shop here. I like the idea that you can change the prices. I don't need another mall."

Project details are expected to be unveiled today, so it isn't clear whether any elements of the marketplace will be kept, including tenants and banyans, one of which dates back a century.

Those familiar with the project said it would retain a low-rise style. But clearly, a piece of the Waikiki of yesteryear will be lost.

The 125,000-square-foot Kalakaua Avenue site developed in 1957 featured strolling Hawaiian musicians, a Polynesian variety show, lu'au and "villages" showcasing arts, crafts and foods of Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino and other cultures.

Over the years, kiosk vendors selling inexpensive jewelry and apparel replaced the villages. Duke's, where entertainer Don Ho performed, is a food court, and Trader Vic's restaurant is a bar and vacant space.

Though its heyday in the 1960s and '70s gave way to major retail redevelopment along the tourist strip, the marketplace remained a popular visitor attraction, with tiki carvers, caricature artists and lei makers among its 300 vendors and restaurants.

In 1997, the foundation acquired the land under the adjacent Waikiki Town Center — the former Kuhio Mall — giving it control of property under the two retail complexes assessed at $95 million.

Redeveloping the combined 4.5-acre site had been a dilemma for the nonprofit foundation, which struggled with giving up existing marketplace income while investing millions of dollars on a project in the hope of providing greater long-term returns for beneficiaries, including The Queen's Medical Center.

Vendors said they were told about the prospect of redevelopment about four years ago, after the foundation took control of the marketplace from a troubled lessee. They said they would begin making plans to move.

Some tenants may be offered space in the new project, though it will not open for an estimated two-year construction period, according to several of the roughly 250 vendors briefed by the foundation yesterday.

Vendors at the meeting said the reaction was businesslike and even marked by applause at points.

That contrasts sharply with the emotional outcry from vendors faced with eviction in the past. Merchants reacted by staging marches and large protests when the site was eyed for a convention center in 1988.

Foundation president Mark Hastert said the organization and real estate leasing agents would help tenants find new sites, though some vendors — especially immigrant business owners with kiosks — said they didn't know where they could move.

"It's going to be a tearful situation when it comes down to the wire," said David J. Kenney, owner of Captain Zak's Marlin Bar and Coconut Willy's Bar & Grill at the marketplace. "That's my livelihood. I've got 30-odd employees and their families who I have to take into consideration."

But Kenney, like other tenants, also understood the foundation's need. "The infrastructure is obviously disheveled ... they've got to develop the property and maximize the value of it," he said. "It's difficult, but it's got to be done."

Ed Sultan, president of the Sultan Co., which operates five pearl shops at the marketplace, said he and other tenants understood redevelopment would be only a matter of time.

"Every single person knew it was going to happen," he said. "I'm sad to see that I'm going to have to close my business here, but I understand the big picture. It's a good thing for Waikiki."

The redevelopment plan is one of four major retail projects in Waikiki, with proposals to redevelop the former Waikiki three-plex theaters and older Outrigger hotels on Lewers Street and renovate the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center.

Stephany Sofos, a local retail and real estate consultant, said the marketplace redevelopment would present a challenge for the foundation, to create something unique that has the power to attract visitors as does the existing marketplace.

"I don't know how you (replace) a concept like that," she said. "It still is uniquely different than anything else in Hawai'i, even though it is a little run down."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065. Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.

• • •

International Market Place through the years

April 1885 — The land under the International Market Place is part of the property left by Queen Emma upon her death. Through The Queen Emma Foundation, the estate benefits The Queen's Medical Center and other healthcare concerns. The widow of King Kamehameha IV inherited the property and other land from King Lunalilo, who had a summer residence on the site.

January 1955 — Clinton Murchison Jr. and Paul W. Trousdale sign a 55-year lease on the property, where they envision an "international village" marketplace. Donn "the Beachcomber" Beach, one of the original promoters of the idea, said plans were to have daytime and nighttime activities in the village.

September 1956 — Contractor E.E. Black Ltd. starts building the first phase of the $1.5 million International Market Place and Village project. The first building, a South Pacific halau, is finished the following January.

February 1957 — The makai portion of the project opens, offering shoppers glimpses of Pacific arts along with eateries, lounges and shops with imported wares. Work continues on the marketplace as well as surrounding apartment buildings, theater, shops and offices mauka of Kuhio Avenue.

July 1966 — Fire destroys Christopher's, the Colonel's Plantation and The Mynah Bird, but they are rebuilt in a Polynesian-style longhouse five months later.

February 1967 — A tradition of operating on "Hawaiian time" — with the marketplace clock chiming 7 1/2 minutes after the hour — ends.

August 1969 — A grassy area for Polynesian performances is paved over to make way for vendor carts. Merchants complain about an increase in panhandling, and the management moves to eject loiterers.

1988 — The marketplace emerges as a favored site for the state's planned convention center, and opposition from vendors begins to mount. Although the state Senate initially rejects the site as too small, by the end of the session the International Market Place is selected, triggering a near-riot at the State Capitol by marketplace merchants.

1990 — The City Council approves a separate plan for a free-standing convention center to be built by the Daiichi Real Estate subsidiary at the 9.7-acre Aloha Motors site. Later in the year, the Convention Center Authority approves a proposal by developer Herbert Horita to build a center at the International Market Place.

1992 — Horita withdraws his proposal as a recession saps his financing. The Legislature votes to extend the life of the Convention Center Authority and orders it to seek alternate sites. Eventually the state settles on the Aloha Motors site.

1998 — Marketplace owner-operator WDC Venture turns the operation over to the foundation in a deal that averted a trial and repayment of about $7.75 million in back rent. Graham Murata Russell continues as managing agent.

1999 — The Queen Emma Foundation takes over management and gives vendors notice of its intent to redevelop the property. Little is said about the project in the following years.

September 2003 — The foundation meets with vendors to announce its plans for a $100 million redevelopment.