UPDATE - Dept. of Planning and Permitting

As of today, Oct 5th:

• City Dept. of Planning & Permitting (DPP) informed us they had a meeting with Target on Sept. 22nd -- another meeting is being scheduled for NEXT week!
• HOW can the City take steps to move this project FORWARD when their own "Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan" states: "NO BIG BOX STORES" ....  "this type of commercial development often results in inappropriate building scale, localized traffic and parking demand impacts, and the economic decline of existing businesses."
• What is happening here? Why is this big-box Target a "windward-side" project ?
• This is NOT acceptable!

Kailua Neighborhood Board Meeting

Thursday, October 7th

7:00pm

Come to the Kailua Neighborhood Board meeting at the Kailua District Park (Multi-Purpose Bldg) @ 21 S. Kainalu Drive! You can state your position and pose questions to the Board or, just be in the audience to show support.

• Wish you could do more to keep Target from coming to Kailua??
• Wish you could be more active in this movement and make a difference?
• Not sure HOW you can contribute?

Here is your opportunity!  

Please do not let another opportunity to be involved pass you by ... Come and represent!

Bring your neighbors, friends and family!

Sign Waving - archive

Saturday, October 30th
1:00pm - 4:00pm

Saturday, October 23rd
2:00pm - 4:00pm

Saturday, October 2nd
4:00pm - 6:00pm

Farewell - First Stop

Another long-time Kailua store is going out of business -- this is truly heart-breaking.

We shall say farewell to First Stop Convenience Store.  They have been around for 26 years!

http://www.kitv.com/money/25164449/detail.html

When does this trend stop?

Do we really want to lose the character and charm of Kailua?

Even if you've already done so, please consider calling, writing or emailing Kaneohe Ranch, and your elected officials, etc. to express your disapproval and unhappiness surrounding these recent events (all contact information is listed on this blog site), .

This trend will continue unless, as a community, we persevere in expressing our deepest concern for the health and well-being of our Kailua -- Please voice your sentiment!

more FACTS

The Kailua community IS NOT OKAY that a 130,000 sq. ft. big-box store is wanting to build in Kailua!! If this happens, whether you've been raised here, whether you've raised your children here, or whether you've simply chosen to make this community your 'home',  the Kailua we remember so fondly with its 'small town' sense of place will be lost forever ...

• to traffic congestion (we have NO INFRASTRUCTURE to sustain the 20% projected increase in traffic!) 
• to the fast-paced 'city life'
• to MORE 52-seater tourist buses entering our "bedroom community" - - currently, Kailua receives 4 buses/day departing Waikiki @ 9:30am, 11am, 12:30pm and 4pm ...  includes 1-1/2 hour tourist shopping spree & Kailua Beach (these large motorcoach buses traverse our small rural streets to Kailua Beach for a 15-minute stop)  
• to the "mini-Waikiki" evolving NOW right before our eyes!
• to LARGE corporations & land-owners working under the radar, w/o accountability to the community, to push their for-profit agenda

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

Star Advertiser - letter to editor

September 3, 2010

Kailua doesn't need a Target

I have a question for Mitch D'Olier in regard to the shopping convenience for Kailua residents if Target comes to town ("Name in the News," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 27). He says Target will make it possible for us to find everything we need there, like kitchenware, office products and kids' clothes.

Well, what about Macy's, just a half block from the proposed Target site? I can find a great selection of kitchen and housewares there, and also at Hardware Hawaii, even at Longs. Macy's has kids' clothes. And for office products, I would go to the professionals in Honolulu anyway -- Fisher Hawaii. Small stuff I can already find at Don Quijote or Longs.

Mollie Foti
Kailua

Star Advertiser - letter to editor

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Kailua worries predate Target

Star-Advertiser writer Vicki Viotti asks Mitch D'Olier, president and CEO of Kaneohe Ranch, "What was the threshold that Target crossed" that resulted in community opposition. He answers, "I'd love to know" (Star-Advertiser, Aug. 27).

We answer as current residents of Kailua where our family has lived continuously since 1929, and as participants in the 2003 survey and the 2004 community planning process.

From our perspective, the threshold was crossed and the tipping point reached before Target even entered the picture. In the last five years, Kaneohe Ranch has developed a new Longs and parking garage; Pier 1 and California Pizza Kitchen; the current construction of a 32,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market plus 8,000 square feet of retail space; and 151 Hekili Street -- 19,000 square feet of retail and office space at one of the busiest intersections in Kailua across from the proposed Target.

We call on Kaneohe Ranch to take a time out and commission an independent assessment of the impacts of its redevelopment on the quality of life in Kailua and the community values defined in the 2004 Community Plan. Because, as he notes, "the real customers are Kailua residents."

Barbara Pope and Deborah Pope
Kailua

Sign Waving - archive

Friday, September 17th
4:30pm - 6:30pm

Saturday, September 11th
11:00am - 1:00pm

Thrusday, September 9th
4:30pm - 6:30pm

Star Advertiser - Name in the news

Aug 27, 2010

Mitch D'Olier

Balancing progress and tradition in Kailua's redevelopment

By Vicki Viotti

Nestled in the cool Koolau foothills is the Kaneohe Ranch Management Ltd. office where Mitch D'Olier occupies one of the hottest hot seats in Kailua.

D'Olier's career, which started in law practice, has included executive posts with Hawaiian Airlines and then a decade in property management as president and chief executive officer of Victoria Ward Ltd.

Shortly after taking the same post for Kaneohe Ranch, he confronted the prospect of redeveloping land owned by the family trust and companies of Harold K. L Castle and Alice H. Castle. The 55-year leases on about 15 acres in downtown Kailua were about to end, auguring changes that many longtime Kailuans found unsettling. In recent years, the higher-profile cases included the demolition of low-cost rentals on Kailua Road to make way for the Ironwoods at Kailua apartments -- its sprawling property still vacant. That unleashed an outcry from displaced tenants. D'Olier said the property now belongs to developer D. R. Horton Inc., which is working to resolve financing delays.

But lately, the upheaval concerns a proposal for a Target store to take over the site now occupied by the Don Quijote store on Hahani Street, sparking worries about adding traffic and subtracting the Asian merchandise available now. It's a protest that's spawned a Facebook campaign and sign-waving efforts. D'Olier believes there is a majority who favor the changes, voices now being drowned out in the clamor.

QUESTION: What can you tell me about the history of the redevelopment?

ANSWER: I started at Kaneohe Ranch, I think, in 2002. And one of the things I saw when I was starting was about 15 acres in downtown Kailua that was coming off of a long-term lease in the next five or six years. What really drove the process of redevelopment ... is the termination of those long-term leases. We were going to have to make a decision on about a third of our property holdings in downtown Kailua. Because that was a significant part of downtown Kailua, because Kailua's a special place to everybody that lives here, and us, we wanted to get community input on what we were going to do. So we did a community planning and development process that lasted about 18 months. We started with a survey by Ward Research about what the aspirations of Kailua residents were.

Q: When was this?

A: In 2003. (We got) an interesting response. We got (replies) all over the place, because people in Kailua don't agree about everything, or maybe anything: If you want to go left, there will be somebody out there who wants to go right. That's part of the fun. And there were probably 50 to 100 people who didn't want anything to change, ever. And they were vocal and came to the meetings and said, "Don't change anything." And that was dramatically different than the 3,000 people that returned surveys and who did want change and want things to happen.

One of the big messages we got back from the survey was pedestrian community. There's been media coverage lately about "Kailua, the beach town." In 2002, nobody wanted to call it that. If I said this is a beach town, they would have said, "No, it's not a beach town, you don't understand it at all." I don't think they want people to know how cool it is at the beach. There are people who react negatively to it being called a beach town, is all I can tell you. They're out there. The 50 to 100 people that were "anti" any change at all and loved Kailua just exactly the way it was, were very surprised by the view of the 3,000 people because they thought movie theaters would be a good thing and there would be a bigger bookstore and some other kinds of things. But that's how we started the process, because after all, the real customers are Kailua residents.

Q: There are a lot of other chain stores now in Kailua. What was the threshold that Target crossed?

A: I'd love to know. All I can tell you is on my first day of work I had three or four Kailua residents, shopper ladies, saying to me, "While you are here managing this place, could you bring us a Target?" And if you were a pro-Target person, would you go to a meeting with 50 angry people and have them calling you names and stuff? That's the tricky thing about development. If you wanted to do affordable housing, I could announce an affordable housing project (and) 1,000 people could show up and say, "Don't do affordable housing." And the 300 people that need to live in the affordable housing place and would really like a place to live where they grew up, they don't show up at the hearing because they're working two jobs. Pro-development people generally don't show up at public meetings. That's just how it works, which is why I did the survey in the first place. So there's those two factions. I think there are two or three people that have very high levels of skill in social media that drive a significant amount of the "We would not like to have Target in Kailua" campaign.

Q: How potent do you think the traffic issue is?

A: I think it's a real issue. And I also think that if traffic were a real problem, Target won't come. Because would you want to open if nobody can get to you, or no people can get there to shop?

Q: The critique is Target will flood the town with people from all over.

A: I'll just tell you this: There's multiple views from different people. Target's not a visitor thing. Visitors to Oahu have Targets.

At least one of my thoughts about Target is it's a shopping convenience thing, because Kailua residents right now can't buy in Kailua kitchenware, can't buy office products, can't buy sporting goods, especially children's sporting goods, can't buy particularly kids' clothes because there's a limited selection in Kailua. So all of a sudden all the empty merchandise categories in Kailua get filled and people don't have to leave Kailua to get anything. It's going to save a lot of gas, but it's going to make Kailua a more successful place to shop.

One of the things people would like us to do is preserve a lot of the unique merchants that make Kailua, Kailua. Boots & Kimo's, Mary Z's, Manuhealii, Kalapawai Cafe ... small merchants. But do you know what small merchants need?

Q: Customers?

A: Yeah. And guess how you get customers? Big merchants pull for small merchants. My first piece is shopping convenience; my second piece is, you know, Target would be way worse for our small merchants if it went to Hawaii Kai or Kaneohe. Because people are going to go to Target. I mean, that's why the traffic concern. But assuming they can get in and out and you don't bring traffic to a grinding halt -- which I submit the city won't let happen anyway -- then this could be really good for small merchants. And that's what I really believe.

Q: I think the size of it is the big thing. It's bigger than the current store, right?

A: It's bigger but not dramatically bigger. It's 100,000 (square) feet of building on the site now, that'll go to 130,000 under the current plan, but that includes storage and warehouse.

When Target first came to Oahu, they met with (the late) Barbara Marshall, who was our then-Council person. Barbara at first told the Target guys, "You can't come to Kailua. I'm going to stop you." I said to Barbara, "Well, what about the Don Quijote site? And she said, "Well, that would be OK" -- because it's already developed.

Q: Don't people who are upset about Target also say, "Well I want my quirky Don Quijote things"?

A: Don't think that Asian products would disappear from Kailua if Don Quijote closed and didn't open in another site. First thing is, don't think Longs and Foodland won't fill that niche really quickly, and probably Times. I can tell you I know a little bit about them looking at those issues. The second piece of that is, I'd love to talk Don Quijote into opening a small Asian products store in Kailua.

Star Advertiser - article

August 06, 2010

Kailua the latest aim for new Target store

The retail giant hopes to overcome residents' traffic concerns before building its fifth outlet

By Kristen Consillio

Target Corp. plans to invest $40 million to build what would be its fifth Hawaii store in Kailua.

The Minneapolis, Minn.-based retailer has acquired the lease on Hahani Street land where a Don Quijote now sits to build a 130,000-square-foot store scheduled to open in July 2012.

However, traffic could be a deal breaker, according to Mitch D'Olier, president and chief executive officer of landowner Kaneohe Ranch Management Ltd. Target is conducting a traffic study because of residents' concerns about the already congested main thoroughfare.

"Target will not go forward if traffic doesn't work," he said. "We're all working to see if we can make it work, but it's not a done deal. It doesn't make any sense for Target to open a store where nobody can get to them."

Traffic is the biggest concern among residents in Kailua, which already has roughly 120 retail stores. Another mainland chain, Whole Foods Market, plans to open a 32,000-square-foot store at Kailua Town Center next fall.

Kailua Neighborhood Board member Derrick Fenske, 41, who lives in Coconut Grove, opposes the retail giant's entry in the beachside community.

"The town is too crowded with cars, and this is only going to add to that problem," Fenske said. "The character of Kailua is constantly being degraded."

Target is particularly sensitive to retaining Kailua's "unique village feel" in the store's architectural character, said Sarah Bakken, Target's communications manager.

"We want to make sure we really fit into kind of the fabric of the area," she said. "This particular site has not seen a lot of reinvestment in the past year. Target will help drive positive and long-term economic development in Kailua."

If traffic is workable, Target will complete its design and seek building permits, D'Olier said.

"If we thought that this would hurt small businesses, we would not proceed because that's like doing something against our own economic interests," he said. "Quite frankly what makes Kailua special is all the great little tenants we have. Target would just provide a lot of new shopping convenience for Kailua residents."

D'Olier estimates the project would generate between 100 and 200 jobs for 12 to 18 months of construction and more than 100 permanent positions. He also said the big-box chain is looking at other sites for expansion on Oahu.

"If it's going to create more jobs in Kailua, then it would be something that we look forward to," said Enchanted Lake resident Jon Chinen, 29, also a member of the Kailua Neighborhood Board.

The Kailua store would be significantly smaller than typical Target stores. In Hawaii they range between 150,000 and 160,000 square feet in Kapolei, Salt Lake and Kona. Target plans to open another store about the same size next year in Hilo.

"It's essentially village size rather than metropolitan area size," said Kailua Neighborhood Board member Debbi Glanstein, who has lived in Kailua for 47 years. "I've seen many, many changes—this is not the worst one. I'm kind of looking forward to it."

Eight tenants near Don Quijote will likely relocate as part of Target's plans, D'Olier said.

Kaneohe resident Bob Twogood, owner of Twogood Kayaks Hawaii Inc., which leases about 1,600 square feet, said the move will make operating his business, which opened in 1981, more challenging.

"There is no place in this world where you can go to where change will not happen," he said. "The nature of life is going to be change. You do what you can to direct it, and what you can't direct, you adapt to."