Longs plans Mililani Mauka store

Longs Drug Stores plans a second new store in Hawaii featuring a drive-through pharmacy.

The store is slated to be built near the entrance of Mililani Mauka on a 1.9-acre site next to a McDonald’s restaurant and a Tesoro gas station and convenience store.

CVS Caremark Corp., which owns Longs, bought the parcel from Mililani’s master developer Castle & Cooke Hawaii. Castle & Cooke said it has an option to construct five additional retail buildings that would expand the tenant mix on the site at the corner of Meheula Parkway and Ainamakua Drive.

The Longs store is designed to be 23,000 square feet and include a two-lane drive-through for pharmacy orders. The store is expected to open in the first half of 2012, and would be one of 46 Longs stores in Hawaii and 29 on Oahu. The first full-size Longs store with a drive-through is scheduled to open July 19 in Pearl City.

Rental rate law among vetoed bills

Gov. Linda Lingle’s vetoed bills Tuesday included one that would have extended a recently expired controversial law enacted last year that affected leases of Oahu’s largest industrial property landlord.

The law, Act 189, aided tenants renegotiating rental rates on property owned by Massachusetts-based HRPT Properties Trust in Mapunapuna and Kalihi Kai.

HRPT, which has about 180 tenants and has pursued aggressive rental rate increases, sued the state alleging that the law unfairly changed terms in its leases that it acquired from the local Damon Estate in 2003. On June 1, Chief Federal District Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled the law unconstitutional.

Lingle plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, but said in her veto message that extending Act 189 from June 30 to June 30, 2013, serves no useful purpose and may expose the state to additional attorneys’ fees.

Oahu college grads to earn $55,800

College graduates entering the work force in Honolulu this year will earn a median salary of $55,800, 15 percent more than they did three years ago, according to a report from the website Payscale.com.

The salary growth tied Honolulu for first place nationally with the greater Allentown, Pa., area, which saw its median salary for college graduates grow by 15 percent to $58,700, according to Payscale.com, which bills itself as having largest database of online employee salary data in the world. The Honolulu growth rate was significantly higher than the national median increase of 3 percent. Separately, a report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that average weekly wages in Honolulu County grew by 2.9 percent to $875 in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier.

Hawaiian Airlines’ traffic rises

Hawaiian Airlines’ passenger traffic rose 3.4 percent in June as the airline filled a greater percentage of its seats. The carrier transported 728,141 people versus 704,343 a year ago while its load factor improved to 85.9 percent from 85.0 percent. Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, rose 5.3 percent to 869.1 million from 825.3 million while revenue seat miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, gained 6.4 percent to 746.6 million from 701.6 million.

Franklin Clay

ON THE MOVE

Communications Pacific has promoted and hired the following:

» Franklin Clay to account supervisor from senior account executive.

» Morgan Kaya to senior account executive from account executive.

» Nicole LaBerge to senior account executive from account executive.

Lyle Y. Harada

» Shere’e Young as assistant account executive.

Island Insurance Co. has appointed Lyle Y. Harada vice president of the claims division. He was previously a partner in the law firm Kawashima, Lorusso & Harada.

The Hawaiian Eye Center has promoted the following:

» Mary Ann Rambuyan to billing supervisor from billing coordinator in Wahiawa.

» Marie "Cheryl" Polendey to senior surgical ophthalmic technician at the ambulatory surgery center from ophthalmic medical assistant.

» Maylanie Martinez to senior patient services representative from patient services representative in Wahiawa.