Laulani Village Shopping Center in Ewa to be Developed
Property Development Centers, a wholly owned subsidiary of Safeway will develop largest retail project in Ewa history
HONOLULU – Property Development Centers (PDC) today announced it has purchased from Laulani Village Holdings, LLC a roughly 20-acre site across from the Hawaii Prince Golf Club at the corner of Fort Weaver Road and Keaunui Drive. PDC will develop the parcel into the Laulani Village Shopping Center, which will include approximately 210,000 square feet of retail space – including a new Safeway store as the anchor tenant.
“Ewa residents have traditionally traveled to Kapolei to do their shopping. This new center will provide retail alternatives much closer to their homes,” said David Zylstra, Chief Operating Officer of Property Development Centers.
Safeway will serve as the center’s anchor tenant, occupying approximately 60,000 square feet, roughly the same size as two other Honolulu locations at Kapahulu Avenue and at Beretania Street, which is currently under construction. Upon full build out, the shopping center is anticipated to bring up to 500 jobs to the area. Of those, 150 are expected to be Safeway employees.
Like Safeway’s other new Hawaii stores, the Laulani Village Shopping Center supermarket will feature a “Lifestyle” format with its own prepared food offerings—including sushi, signature sandwiches and hot soups—in a warm, inviting environment that highlights the fresh, high-quality products and proprietary brands.
“We have already received great feedback from the Ewa community, and there’s a lot of anticipation about the potential jobs and retail opportunities that this project will bring to the area,” said Rick Hobson, vice president of marketing and sales, Gentry Homes, the area’s largest residential developer.
PDC is exploring leases with a mix of local and national companies for the larger remaining retail space. There are several retail “pads” around the site, generally ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet that will feature eateries, such as a restaurant and coffee shop, and smaller retail tenants. Pre-leasing is actively underway, and CBRE, which is handling the leasing, reports very high interest in the project.
The project is expected to break ground in Fall 2011, with construction expected to last approximately 12 months. The Safeway store is projected to open in late 2012.
Safeway’s expansion into Ewa comes on the heels of several new projects around the state. Safeway recently held a grand opening for its newest store at Maka‘ala Center in Hilo (in a joint development with Target) and is currently building its new Beretania Street store at the site of the former Schuman Carriage auto dealership in urban Honolulu. Plans are also under way to develop a store on Kauai with groundbreaking expected within the next 12 months.
ABOUT PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT CENTERS and SAFEWAY
Property Development Centers is a national shopping center development company developing centers for and with Safeway as one of the major anchor tenants. PDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Safeway Inc., a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,694 stores in the United States and Canada and had annual sales of $41 billion in 2010. The company’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.