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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, October 22, 2004

Plan for Pearlridge retooled

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Two years after local retailer INspiration Furniture bought the former J.C. Penney department store site at Pearlridge Center, the company is redirecting its effort to fill three floors of vacant space at O'ahu's second-largest mall.

INspiration announced yesterday that it plans to divide its roughly 100,000 square feet into 25 to 35 spaces for retail, restaurant and service tenants under a leasing and management program run by local real-estate firm Colliers Monroe Friedlander.

The plan follows an unsuccessful attempt to land five to nine bigger tenants, including anchors Linens 'N Things and Cost Plus World Market.

Leasing arrangements with Linens 'N Things and Cost Plus, which do not have stores in Hawai'i, were announced last year by INspiration, which had hoped the stores would have opened earlier this year. But final leasing agreements could not be reached.

Popular anchor tenants such as Linens 'N Things and Cost Plus typically are able to negotiate lower rents and take longer to sign leases, and INspiration had to consider its costs for the unused property.

"At some point it becomes too expensive to wait for the big deal," said Jessika Fodor, project leasing agent with Colliers.

Fodor said the refocusing on mostly smaller apparel and specialty merchandise retailers is expected to result in stores opening next summer, though the plan could include a larger anchor with as much as 40,000 square feet on two levels.

"The response has been good," she said. "We're excited."

Three spaces totaling 11,000 square feet on a third level not connected to the inside of the mall are the only spaces leased to date, according to INspiration and Colliers, which did not identify the tenants.

INspiration bought the J.C. Penney space in November 2002 from Kin Properties, a Florida company that was leasing the mall space to the department store chain.

J.C. Penney pulled out of Hawai'i in January 2003, closing four stores. J.C. Penney store spaces on Maui and the Big Island were converted to Macy's stores.

At Ala Moana Center where J.C. Penney occupied 220,000 square feet, a few stores, including Maui Divers Jewelry and Betsey Johnson, recently opened. Roughly 30 retailers and restaurants including Tori Richard, Ruby Tuesday and Build-A-Bear Workshop are scheduled to open this year and early next year.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.