The Hawaiian Marketplace, an 80,000-square-foot retail center, opened last week in Las Vegas. Bart Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Inspired by O'ahu's International Marketplace, the $175 million, 80,000-square-foot Hawaiian Marketplace opened near the MGM Grand hotel last week, offering what the developers describe as the city's "first immersive, themed, stand-alone retail center" featuring "the sights and sounds of Polynesia, with island-themed architecture, bright colors and lush plantings ..."

While performers native to the Islands entertain shoppers with dancing, storytelling and craft-making, there is little else to remind anyone who actually knows the real Hawai'i of Hawai'i.

The center's canopy-covered Enchanted Garden includes a suspended group of oversize robotic parrots (not Hawaiian) who sing and dance after a show of thunder and lightning. Most of the plants are non-native, and even the banyan trees are fake.

The center's long list of retailers and restaurants includes only one shop that sells authentic Hawaiian-style goods, "Aloha Las Vegas," an extension of A&B Import Export Inc. on King Street.

A&B owner Bles Patino says that while it works to her advantage being the center's only Hawaiian-style retailer, visitors from the Islands are going to be disappointed.

"This is junk," Patino says. "Our International Marketplace is way better than this one."