The Tuesday opening of one of the nation’s largest Tiffany &Co. stores is a linchpin in the multimillion-
dollar renovation of the Royal Hawaiian Center and a testament to Waikiki’s clout as a shopping destination.
The nearly 12,000-square-foot Tiffany &Co. store is the chain’s largest investment in Hawaii since opening its Ala Moana Center store in 1992. The new three-story Waikiki store at the corner of Kalakaua Avenue and Lewers Street replaces Tiffany’s former 2100 Kalakaua Ave. store. The larger footprint showcases a broader retail range, including an expanded home-goods line and the chain’s only other full-floor Love and Engagement Salon outside of Tokyo.
“The Hawaiian community has fully embraced Tiffany since our arrival in the market 26 years ago. This is one of our most important global cities for the brand — that’s why this is one of our top 10 stores in terms of size and investment, ” said Alexandra Winokur, group vice president of Tiffany &Co. Northern American Retail. “We moved to Royal Hawaiian Center because we call it the 50-yard-line. We wanted to be in the heart of Waikiki.”
The move is good for Tiffany and for Royal Hawaiian Center, which announced last year that it planned to increase the center’s luxury presence to 30 percent of its 310,000-square-foot site — the largest luxury share ever for the center, which sits on prime leasehold land owned by Kamehameha Schools. It’s an aggressive goal considering Kalakaua Avenue is the nation’s fifth-most-lucrative shopping street in terms of sales per square foot, after Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue in New York, Chicago’s Michigan Avenue and California’s Rodeo Drive.
But the center is getting closer to reaching that target with the addition of Tiffany &Co. and the expansion of
Hermes, a center tenant since 2002, into a new approximately 12,000-square-foot, three-story location slated to open in March 2019.
“We are very excited to bring the iconic Tiffany &Co. brand to Royal Hawaiian Center. The store design is magnificent, ” said Rosalind J. Schurgin, CEO of The Festival Companies, the management and leasing firm for Royal
Hawaiian Shopping Center, which is owned by RHC Property Holding LLC, a division of JPM Asset Management.
The new Tiffany’s features marble floors, a digital screen ceiling and blue suede walls. There are selfie walls and lounges for private marriage proposals. It features archival collections, commissioned artwork and limited edition items, including Aloha charms, which sold out in the first three days of business. In-store jewelry prices range from simple silver pieces that cost $100 to $200, to a $715,000, 5.6-carat diamond.
Winokur declined to say how much was spent on
the new store, but confirmed it was “much more” than budgeted.
Tiffany’s opening follows that of Tim Ho Wan, a dim sum restaurant, known as the “world’s cheapest Michelin star restaurant,” Stussy, a late ’80s and ’90s-style surfing-
influenced apparel brand,
upscale grocer Dean &DeLuca and luxury sunglasses retailer Vitra Eyewear.