Hunt Companies Inc. broke ground Tuesday on the Kilauea Lighthouse Village, a 47,000-square-foot shopping center on Kauai.
The complex will be anchored by The Market at Kilauea, a 10,000-square-foot grocery store that’s part of the Sullivan Family of Cos., operator of Foodland, Food Pantry and Kalama Beach Corp.
The popular Mexican restaurant Verde and Wyland Galleries, offering paintings and other artwork by marine-life artist Wyland, also will open in the mall. Other tenants have not been announced.
The project, estimated to generate 100 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs, is expected to be completed in late 2017.
Target customers dislike new pill bottles
Target’s pharmacy customers are finding a change in pill bottle design hard to swallow.
After CVS began operating Target’s drugstores earlier this year, distraught customers have been asking — in some cases begging — the drugstore chain to bring back the retailer’s red prescription bottles, which came with color-coded rings, labeling on the top and prescription information that was easier to read.
CVS says it is working on designing a new system for dispensing prescriptions and helping people stay on their medications, but declined to share details or say whether that might involve an updated bottle design.
Gains in the West spur U.S. home prices
WASHINGTON >> U.S. home prices rose again in July, pulled up by strong gains in Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Denver.
The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, rose 5 percent in July from a year earlier after increasing 5.1 percent in June.
The latest report is further evidence that prices are being pushed higher by the limited inventory of homes on the market. That is hurting sales of both new and existing homes, despite buyer enthusiasm and historically low mortgage rates.
U.S. consumer confidence jumps
WASHINGTON >> U.S. consumer confidence in September rose to its highest level in nine years, a hopeful sign that economic growth will accelerate in coming months.
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 104.1, up from 101.8 in August. It was the strongest reading since the index stood at 105.6 in August 2007, four months before the beginning of the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
Private economists had been forecasting the index would drop in September after a strong August reading.
Global trade slowdown is forecast
GENEVA >> The World Trade Organization dramatically slashed its forecast for trade growth this year by about a third to its lowest rate since 2009, when the global economy was mired in recession in the wake of the financial crisis.
In an update to its forecasts Tuesday, the world’s leading trade body said the groundswell in anti-globalization sentiment could make matters worse, especially if policymakers respond to that in a “misguided” manner.
The Geneva-based WTO, perhaps best known for dealing with trade disputes, predicted that global trade will rise only 1.7 percent this year, way down from its April prediction for 2.8 percent.
Air France workers on trial over unrest
BOBIGNY, France >> Fifteen current and former Air France workers went on trial Tuesday for alleged violence during a union protest last year at the airline’s headquarters that saw two company executives flee over a fence with their shirts ripped off.
The incident, caught on camera, was an extreme example of the often strained relations between French workers and their employers. Five Air France union members, who have since been fired, are charged with aggravated assault, and face up to three years in prison and a $51,000 fine if convicted. Ten Air France workers, who retained their jobs, face charges of property damage.
On the Move
Bank of Hawaii has announced the following:
>> Gina Loose has been promoted to vice president and primary relationship officer from officer and commercial banking underwriter at Ala Moana Commercial Banking Center. She has held other positions at Bank of Hawaii, including a business banking officer, private banking relationship manager as well as bank associate.
>> Neil Kadota was promoted to vice president and treasury investment officer from assistant vice president and treasury senior analyst in the asset and liability management group, which is in the treasury department. He has served as a treasury senior analyst as well as a consumer banking representative with in-store banking since 2006.