Costco seeks bigger Hawai'i Kai store, gas station
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
Costco is in negotiations with landowner Kamehameha Schools to expand its Hawai'i Kai store and add a discount gas station.
Plans also call for expanding to the medical and office center at the mauka side of the shopping center, near Costco; adding a two-tiered parking deck; and enlarging the food court.
Costco, based in Issaquah, Wash., has been working on the expansion plans for more than a year, but has not settled any details, said Bruce Greenwood, senior vice president for the Los Angeles region, of which Hawai'i is part.
The hangup is the cost of the expansion, including renovation and lease expenses, he said, declining to cite specific figures. But if everything goes as planned, Greenwood hopes to complete the expansion within 18 months.
Kekoa Paulsen, spokesman for Kamehameha Schools, which leases the property to Costco, confirmed that the company has been negotiating for more space. No final decisions have been made, Paulsen said.
Residents were excited about the prospect of a larger store, but some expressed concern about an anticipated increase in traffic and parking problems that plague all of Hawai'i Kai's three shopping centers.
"I think the community would be very interested in seeing the plans," said Lester Muraoka, Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board chairman. "We'd like to see the impact on traffic and what the proposed multidecked parking structure would look like and how it will affect the view plane."
The 13-year-old Hawai'i Kai store on Keahole Street is the anchor tenant for the Hawai'i Kai Towne Center and is one of five Costco stores in Hawai'i. It is smaller than the others, at about 100,000 square feet, compared with 148,000 at the Iwilei store.
The Hawai'i Kai store is the company's lowest producer in the state, Greenwood said, while the Iwilei store is the company's top seller among its 434 locations worldwide. Both the Iwilei and Hawai'i Kai stores have eyeglass and tire-replacement centers, but Iwilei also offers a hearing aid center, a coffee roasting station and a seafood poke section that offers six varieties of the pupu.
"We feel we're underserving the community," Greenwood said, referring to the Hawai'i Kai store. "There is a lot of merchandise we don't carry at Hawai'i Kai."
Three of Costco's five Hawai'i locations have gas stations: Iwilei and Waipi'o on O'ahu, and Kona on the Big Island. The Iwilei gas station opened last November.
Costco stations pump, on average, a higher volume of gas per month than traditionally operated stations and help sales volume in the stores, Greenwood said.
At Hawai'i Kai, the plan is to put in a three- or four-island gas station near Burger King.
Greenwood said he has to get company approval before he can sign any agreement or submit permit applications to the city.
Sherri Rigg, a regular shopper at Costco Hawai'i Kai, said she hoped there would be adequate parking if the store expands. Already motorists must circle around at all the centers looking for parking, she said.
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
