PacificBusinessNews-article

November 21, 2013

Work on Target’s Kailua store starts, opening planned for early 2015

By Duane Shimogawa

Construction recently started on the long-delayed $40 million Target store in Kailua, which will be the retailer’s third location on Oahu and is now scheduled to open in early 2015.
The new store will create about 550 jobs, including 250 construction jobs and 300 permanent positions, according to a website Minneapolis, Minn.-based Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) set up for the project.
When reached by PBN, a Target Hawaii spokesman referred all questions about the project to the website. In May, a company spokesman said that the new 130,000-square-foot Target store would open in October 2014, but the website gives an updated opening date as early 2015.
Click on the photo for a slideshow of renderings provided by Target.
Target, which bought the seven-acre parcel at 345 Hahani St. from Castle Family LLC for $22.5 million in January 2011, recently received the building permit for the new store, according to public records.
Demolition work, which includes taking down the former Don Quijote building, has begun with the estimated value of work at $13 million by general contractor Honolulu-based dck pacific construction LLC, according to the City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting.
The project, which is expected to create 250 construction jobs, is expected to take about 10 to 12 months to complete, the Target website said.
“There was a lot of site work [to be done],” dck pacific Senior Vice President and General Manager Eric Tessem told PBN. “To Target’s credit, they really acknowledged culture issues and did a good job at that.”
Target and dck pacific are very familiar with one another, as the contractor built both the Kapolei and Kailua-Kona Target stores.
Last year, Target changed its plans for the store after an archaeological study found ancient Native Hawaiian remains at the proposed site.
But it said it completed its field tests required for the archaeological inventory survey, which required trenching, and a ground blessing was held about a month ago.
Through the site, Target addressed traffic concerns by noting that in its traffic study, it will be reducing the number of driveways on Hahani Street from five to two; installing a new traffic signal at the intersection of Hahani and Hekili streets; building new, dedicated turn lanes, constructing another crosswalk and conducting a post-opening traffic study.
Target has four stores in Hawaii, in Honolulu and Kapolei on Oahu, and in Hilo and Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. In addition to the Kailua store, another store is planned for a site in Kahului on Maui.
Meanwhile, Kailua is still buzzing over Wednesday’s announcement that Alexander & Baldwin Inc. is acquiring the Hawaii commercial real estate portfolio from Kaneohe Ranch and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation for $373 million, which includes much of the town, including the parcels on either side of the new Target store.