Pizza and video-game parlor Chuck E. Cheese's intends to open a third O'ahu location as part of a planned neighborhood retail center in Kapolei.

The children's entertainment chain has signed a lease to be one of two or three anchor tenants in Kapolei Town Square, a 112,000-square-foot complex planned between Home Depot and Kmart in O'ahu's growing "second city."

Kapolei Town Square is slated to begin construction next summer and open in fall 2009, providing space for an estimated 33 new retail, restaurant and service businesses.

The project by local development firm MW Group Ltd. will be the third-biggest of four major shopping centers for Kapolei, which in 1992 welcomed its first business, Safeway, as part of the 134,000-square-foot Kapolei Shopping Center.

In 2002, the 64,108-square-foot Marketplace At Kapolei opened as the area's second shopping center with 27 tenant spaces.

Kapolei's largest retail center will be Kapolei Commons, a 605,000-square-foot complex anchored by a 160,000-square-foot Target store adjacent to Home Depot. Completion is projected for March 2009.

Other major planned retail additions for Kapolei include Costco and Wal-Mart stores.

John Dooling, an MW Group vice president, said the desired tenant mix for Kapolei Town Square is aimed at young families, a large and growing part of Kapolei's population.

"Our goal is to bring more of Honolulu's favorite restaurants and retail offerings to Kapolei, and this is a great start," he said.

Chuck E. Cheese's is a 30-year-old chain started by the inventor of the Atari video game system and the game Pong, Nolan Bushnell, who saw a need for video game arcades with a family atmosphere.

Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, Calif., in 1977. After a rapid expansion to about 250 locations, the company filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by competitor ShowBiz Pizza in 1984.

Today the merged chain of about 530 Chuck E. Cheese's is owned by the Texas-based successor of ShowBiz Pizza, CEC Entertainment. Inc., a publicly traded company that franchises about 40 of the restaurants including those in Hawai'i.

The oldest Hawai'i Chuck E. Cheese's dates back to 1982 when it opened in 'Aina Haina as a ShowBiz Pizza Place. Two other Chuck E. Cheese's, one on Kapi'olani Boulevard and one in Pearl City, opened and closed in the 1980s.

Wayne Hayami, a local accountant and former chief financial officer for E. K. Fernandez Shows, acquired the franchise in 1992, and opened a second location in Pearl City in 1994.

Hayami said he had looked at expanding to Kapolei 10 years ago, but the corporate franchisor expressed concerns about the area's population and projected growth. More recently, Hayami said corporate officials were easily convinced Kapolei should be an expansion site.

"I think Kapolei is really under-retailed right now," he said.

Real estate developers expect the Kapolei region's population to grow from about 84,000 in 2005 to 129,000 by 2015 with the addition of almost 16,000 new homes.

Dooling said MW Group is still seeking other tenants for Kapolei Town Square. Most tenant spaces are about 4,000 square feet or smaller. There are two available anchor spaces of about 13,000 square feet and 24,000 square feet.

Possible uses include a grocery store and drugstore.

"We're talking to the whole gamut of users right now," he said.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.