• Waikoloa Plaza’s development team, business owners and county officials take part in the shopping center’s blessing ceremony and ground breaking Friday morning. (Photos by LANDRY FULLER/SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY)
WAIKOLOA VILLAGE — At a blessing ceremony and groundbreaking event Friday morning, Meridian Pacific, Ltd.’s owner and president Gary Pinkston said Waikoloa Village is a bit like coming home.
“I grew up on a cattle ranch in Kansas and Parker Ranch used to ship us cattle to full feed,” he said. “Our firm opened an office in Hawaii in 1985 and we’ve been active developing shopping centers in the state ever since. This groundbreaking for Waikoloa Plaza is a great occasion.”
Formerly named Waikoloa Village TownCenter, Pinkston said 100 percent of the project’s construction financing has been secured from Bank of Hawaii, and the shopping center is tentatively scheduled to open in early 2020. Originally, Meridian Pacific Ltd. planned to break ground last December and open the shops in two phases: the first in December 2018 and the second in December 2019.
“We decided to open the shops all at once, which changed the timing,” Pinkston said.
The 130,000-square-foot $40 million shopping center will encompass 19 square acres, with 35 retail stores filling spaces ranging from 800 to 35,000 square feet.
Eighty-five percent of Waikoloa Plaza has been leased, Pinkston said, with tenants including Aloha Petroleum, Ace Hardware, Foodland, Fitness Forever, Family Health and Wellness, CrossFit AllStar, and dining outlets such as Balimo’s Pizza, Chef TK, L&L Hawaiian BBQ, Strato’s New York Pizzeria, SushHi and Bodhi Tree Juicery.
Guy Kamitaki, treasurer for ACE Hardware, said he saw a void his store could fill in a new shopping center.
“We wanted to service the community and all of the people here because they don’t have a hardware store,” he mentioned at the event.
The developer is also in talks with Nail Salon, Island Holistic Healing, Verizon, Longs Drugs, Maui Taco’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Denny’s, The UPS Store and McDonald’s, among others.
“As we’re moving forward, I encourage everyone to let us know if there’s anything missing in the community,” Pinkston said, addressing the crowd Friday. “We will have Easter parades, Christmas functions — whatever you can help us incorporate into the shopping center we’ll do.”
Larry Adams, director of sales and marketing for Aloha Petroleum, has been eagerly awaiting the opportunity.
“We’ve been looking for a new location for probably 14 years and had several opportunities to go into the development, but none of the developers have had the vision like Gary and his team,” he said. “He invited us to come along with Foodland since we do some retail things with Foodland.”
Even the state is involved in the project. Ongoing negotiations for the sale of 1.75 acres to the state would allow the long-sought Waikoloa Regional Library to be built on land near the post office, adjacent to the shopping center.
“This shopping center is what we were looking for in our county, and with economic development will come prosperity for the community,” District 9 Councilman Tim Richards said.
A proposed 150-room hotel is another unique aspect that Pinkston hopes to add to the shopping center.
“The idea originated after I learned of the need from the community,” Pinkston said. “The decision for a hotel was also based on the seat count into the Big Island being up from 600,000 five years ago to 1.3 million in 2018. At the same time, the Hilton and others have taken 700 guestrooms out of service for condos.”
Goodfellow Brothers has been hired to construct the parking lot, sewer/water system and all of the paving beginning in August, according to Pinkston. Meridian Pacific will handle the vertical construction scheduled to start in April 2019.
Plans include two major entrances, one on Waikoloa Road and another on Pua Melia, about 1,000 feet makai of the post office. A third entrance would be across from the lower entrance to Waikoloa Highlands Shopping Center on Waikoloa Road.
“We don’t foresee any added traffic along Waikoloa Road from construction trucks since we will use the south entrance,” Pinkston said. “Construction will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.”
Meridian Pacific, Ltd. has developed, financed and leased more than 55 shopping centers in California, Nevada, Colorado and Hawaii. On Oahu, the company has owned Koko Marina Center, Windward Mall, Town Center of Mililani and Waipahu Town Center. Their other Big Island project is the Puna Kai shopping center in Pahoa, scheduled to open in early 2019, Pinkston said.
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