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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / JAN. 12
The site of the former Kmart st0re 500 N. Nimitz in Iwilei will be redeveloped.
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Hawaii’s first Kmart store, which closed in late March in Iwilei, is slated to be redeveloped for $19.7 million to make way for Longs Drugs, PetSmart and Ross Dress for Less.
Owner Seritage Growth Properties, a New York-based real estate investment trust, disclosed the 79,000-square-foot project in its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sears Holdings Corp. recently sold the building at 500 N. Nimitz Highway to Seritage Growth Properties for $11.2 million.
“Having exercised our 100 percent recapture right for this Kmart store, we look forward to maximizing the value of the property by redeveloping it into a multi-tenant shopping center with category-leading retailers including Longs Drugs (CVS), PetSmart and Ross Dress for Less,” Seritage said in a statement.
Construction is scheduled to begin sometime in the second quarter of this year, and to be completed in about a year.
The Kmart store opened in 1992.
“The trend across the United States and even globally is to downsize because the costs of rents and insurance and labor have all gone up exponentially over the last five years. This is great for the consumer because instead of one store you’re going to have three,” said Stephany Sofos, a Honolulu real estate analyst.
“It will uplift the general area because they’re new and invigorating stores (that) will bring in new consumers, which again will pull up the neighborhood,” Sofos said. “Whenever you have good retailers coming in, it’s a positive situation for consumers, and competition gets better, which means better price points for the consumer.”