November 19, 2014
Is Target expanding in Hawaii? Warehouse lease may be a sign
Target Corp., which has four stores open in Hawaii — with two more opening on Maui and Oahu next year — recently leased out a 32,537-square-foot warehouse on Oahu to serve as a central distribution warehouse for all of its stores in the state.
Ken Simon, founder and president of Menehune Water Co., the owner of the warehouse that sits on a 44,007-square-foot lot in the Halawa industrial area of Aiea, confirmed the lease to PBN.
"We bought [the lease on the] property a few years ago, but did not expand enough to use it internally," he said.
The Queen Emma Land Co., the nonprofit affiliate of The Queen's Medical Center, owns the property, according to public records and a spokeswoman for Queen's.
Target, (NYSE: TGT) through a spokeswoman, confirmed to PBN that it has signed a lease for warehouse space in Hawaii, but said the company had nothing more to share at this time.
When asked if Target is expanding in Hawaii with more locations, the spokeswoman said that it has no additional details to share at this time besides opening two new locations in March 2015, one on Oahu and another on Maui.
The Minnesota-based retailer was recently issued a $600,000 building permit by the City and County of Honolulu for the warehouse facility.
Honolulu-based dck pacific construction is the general contractor for the build-out. Maude Omai, spokeswoman for dck, confirmed to PBN that the facility is a warehouse for Target.
Target's four stores in Hawaii are located in Hilo and Kona on the Big Island and in Salt Lake and Kapolei on Oahu.
The two Target stores scheduled to open in March are located in Kahului on Maui and in Kailua in Windward Oahu.
A Target store has also been rumored to open in the current Nordstrom space at Ala Moana Center after the department store moves to the Ewa Wing of the state's largest shopping mall, near the state's first Bloomingdale's store.
