New owner works hard toturn Harbor Mall around

NAWILIWILI — If Harbor Mall is the prototype, the shopping center of the new

millennium will be about much more than just restaurants and shops.

New

owner Greg Allen and family are working feverishly toward what they hope will

be a sold-out grand re-opening for the former Menehune Shopping Village and

Pacific Ocean Plaza along Rice Street here.

A lu’au grounds, wedding

chapel, boardwalk along Nawiliwili Stream, outrigger canoes offering visitors

and residents rides up and down the stream, and more are planned following

massive renovations to the mall now best known for Kaua’i Chop Suey, Tokyo

Lobby and Cafe Portofino restaurants.

Allen, a Wailua resident and

entrepreneur, bought the property for just over $1 million (it listed for $1.6

million), or around $33 a square foot for the 30,000 square foot mall on three

acres.

He figures if he puts between $15 and $20 per square foot of

improvements in, or as much as $750,000, he can turn the once-neglected space

into a “functional” retail mall.

The tenants have suffered due to poor

visibility, poor access, poor management and other factors, but at 65 cents a

square foot were getting probably the best retail lease rates on the island,

Allen said.

He plans on keeping the rates lower than other nearby malls,

partly by not trying to enforce percentage-of-sales rents most other malls

charge.

Passersby have already noticed and commented favorably on the

improvement in mall looks just by Allen clearing overgrown foliage around the

center.

He is creating, he hopes, a place where visitors can come “that

says ‘aloha,'” with a Hawaiian atmosphere. Only native vegetation will welcome

visitors and residents who take a stroll along the boardwalk that will

crisscross Nawiliwili Stream in at least two locations.

The building

improvements, including expansive lanai for the second-floor restaurant spaces

looking out toward Kalapaki Bay and Nawiliwili Harbor, are expected done by

year’s end.

Cafe Portofino is the only second-floor eatery now, but that is

likely to change soon. Interest is already being shown in a 3,500-square-foot

restaurant space immediately adjacent to Cafe Portofino.

The improvements

around the stream will take about another six months, he estimates. More

parking is part of the plan, too.

“I have a history of doing this,” Allen

said of the metamorphosis of Harbor Mall that has his tenants excited.

He

and his father and family own around 100 apartment units in Utah, and he and

his father as principals of Harbor Mall both like to transform neglected spaces

into something they, tenants and the entire community can be proud of, he

added.

Allen’s brother and sisters, including 19-year-old Jonathan Allen,

who is running the refurbishing work along with local contractor Curtis Law,

are minority partners in Harbor Mall.

“So it’s basically a family deal,” he

said.

His father owns land at ‘Anini, and owns a large communications

company. Greg Allen has Motorola dealerships on Kaua’i and Maui, and his

Pacific Audio Kaua’i installs high-end home theaters on the island.

To keep

himself just busy enough, he also deals Malibu water ski boats on the

island.

Tara Blackburn is the office manager in the Harbor Mall management

office, and currently there are two painters, two landscapers and two handymen

on staff.

“I plan to make this the most beautiful mall on Kaua’i,” said

Allen, who is hoping to improve on the current 52 percent occupancy before a

grand re-opening bash is scheduled.

Kiosks will be allowed in the central

courtyard currently undergoing a change from concrete to garden, and native

plants are going to be the rule throughout.

Allen is hopeful that either a

local (ala Sam Choy) or national (like Outback Steakhouse) restaurant will want

to open here, and through his connections on Maui and elsewhere has been

negotiating with separate Mexican and Greek restaurant owners.

Though

advertising the retail space availability only in The Garden Island currently,

the mall has garnered new businesses like a day health spa, Island Breeze

Boutique (a bath and body shop), and other new tenants.

Allen would like to

see a coffee shop and breakfast restaurant in the mix, an activities desk in

one of the kiosks, and possibly an artists’ cooperative. A surf shop owner has

shown interest as well, he said.

Remodeling of Kaua’i Chop Suey and Cafe

Portofino are planned for the near future as well.

After he, family and

workers clean out Nawiliwili Stream, he hopes to enlist volunteers to

hand-clean the stream underneath the two concrete bridges, and eventually offer

outrigger canoe rides up and down the stream.

His eyes lit up when told

that there used to be an active Kalapaki Bay resort association, with what is

now the Marriott as the major player. A hotel that employs as many people as

Marriott does is heaven for a person looking for volunteers to clean a

stream.

Allen, 37, feels the location on Rice Street, which the visitor

publications list as the main route from Lihu’e Airport to the South Shore and

back, can be a positive once the facade of the mall is transformed into an

open, welcoming look.

Being close to Nawiliwili Harbor and the cruise ships

that arrive regularly is a major opportunity Allen also hopes to capitalize on.

The Marriott, Anchor Cove across the street, and other draws to the area should

make the mall a success, he feels.

“I think we should be the dining,

strolling, shopping mecca for the island, really.”

He bought much of the

land where the mall sits outright, and holds a lease on some from the Lovell

family. Gabriel I, who lived most of his life on the harbor side of Nawiliwili

Stream, came home from Honolulu recently, and Allen said I is pleased with

plans to spruce up his former stomping grounds.

Business Editor Paul

C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).