The Polynesian Cultural Center has announced that they plan to build a 119,000 sq ft marketplace in front of their main attraction with free admission and free parking with validation. The Hukilau Marketplace is scheduled to open in January 2015 and will offer retail, dining and entertainment to patrons who decide not to enter the main park. Alfred Grace, the president and CEO of the Polynesian Cultural Center, stated, "This is a really huge undertaking for the Polynesian Cultural Center. It really is the first time that we have reached out to the public with an offering that does not require an admission ticket and that will provide guests with a short-term experience at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Everything prior to that has been based on guests, visitors and locals alike, spending a full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. So for the people driving around the island or looking for something to do for a couple of hours, this is an entirely new offering."
The marketplace will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and will have several restaurants, a bakery, foot trucks, a high-end Hawaiian jewelry store, an ukulele shop, and other retail stores and kiosks. Grace added, "We think that there's some great opportunities falling into place for the Polynesian Cultural Center and this community to be more self-sustaining. We haven't really ever been able to take advantage of the drive-by traffic that we have on Kamehameha Highway. With the marketplace and the (new) hotels (being built), the growth rates at the PCC actually will increase going forward rather than diminish as they have in recent years. We are confident we will see a reasonable return on our investment from this marketplace based on all the projections that we've done and the projections that Colliers Hawaii did. They also did an analysis of drive-by traffic and people who would stop and go to the PCC. We used some fairly conservative estimates to come up with some initial return on investment forecasts."
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 6-22-2014, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Principal Broker, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Principal Broker, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
