Officials of retail giant Target Corp., the nation's No. 2 discount retailer, will be joined by Hawai'i dignitaries this morning as they bless and break ground for their Kapolei store — one of Target's first two stores in the islands.

The store will be at the to-be-built Kapolei Commons shopping complex at Kapolei Parkway and Kalaeloa Boulevard, behind Home Depot and diagonally across from a planned Costco store.

While it will not be one of Target's superstores, the 160,000-square-foot store will be larger than the typical general-merchandise Target outlets on the Mainland, which are in the 130,000-square-foot range.

The increased size will mainly accommodate a larger storeroom. The store will carry some grocery items, but will not not have a full grocery.

The complex is being developed jointly by the MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group on 54 acres of land. Target will occupy about a third of the complex.

The Target store, expected to open in March 2009, will be coupled with the surrounding Kapolei Commons retail complex as a major component of the Kapolei Urban Design Plan — a long-range construction concept for O'ahu's Second City.

Meanwhile, Target tomorrow will hold the official groundbreaking ceremony for a store at the former Salt Lake Costco in Bougainville Industrial Park. That 131,000-square-foot building has been vacant since 2002.

Target officials also are looking at a March 2009 opening for that site.

Both ground-breaking ceremonies are closed to the public.

Hawai'i is one of only three states without a Target store.

Target's entry into the O'ahu retail market is expected to be welcomed by many residents. An Advertiser poll in 2001 ranked Target as the retailer that Islanders most wanted to see open here.

Target has said it plans to hire 200 to 250 employees for each store. The nationwide chain has more than 1,500 outlets.