WAIPOULI — Kaua’i Village here is above 90 percent occupancy, and Kukui Grove Center in Lihu’e is bustling into the Christmas season with an expanded Sears store, so excuse Wade Lord if his smile is wider than a four-lane Kaumuali’i
WAIPOULI — Kaua’i Village here is above 90 percent occupancy, and Kukui Grove Center in Lihu’e is bustling into the Christmas season with an expanded Sears store, so excuse Wade Lord if his smile is wider than a four-lane Kaumuali’i Highway.
Recently named general manager of Kukui Grove Center through real estate and management firm Chaney Brooks & Company, Lord also manages Kaua’i Village for the owner of that center.
He sees no conflict, as the centers really cater to different clientele (Kukui Grove is a regional mall aiming at residents, while Kaua’i Village caters more to visitors), and are far enough away from each other geographically to not really compete for the same shoppers. Still, he pledged to the owners of both centers to work as hard as he can to help each be successful.
At both centers, there is room for success even as local competition stiffens. “There’s a world of opportunities for retail to be successful,” Lord said. “I’m optimistic about the sales opportunities at both locations.” And while some of the larger department stores have, unfortunately, led some smaller, mom-and-pop stores on the island to shut their doors, those surviving small stores are thriving in an environment where they’ve been able to adapt to market conditions by improving customer service, advertising, product selection, or a combination of those, he said.
At Kukui Grove, he sees an extremely bright future. There is room for one more anchor tenant, in the former JCPenney location near Liberty House. And the expansion of Sears into the former Woolworth location has already paid dividends for the center in terms of increased interest in leasing of the other vacant storefronts, Lord said.
The Sears expansion has also helped along leases in progress, he added. At Kukui Grove, there is a Lord bottom line: If center management does a good job marketing and leasing the center, and if tenants do a good job selling their goods, everyone is successful.
Part of his job is to “partner” with tenants, which in some cases means pointing out places where he sees specific stores may improve their product, or display.
Tenants must also partner with management, providing feedback on which promotions work and which don’t, where advertising efforts might be better considered, even when there are common-area lights out in the center, for example, he continued. Lord, 42, became manager at Kaua’i Village when it opened in 1989, after being project manager during the construction of the center the year before. He was named manager of Kukui Grove in October.
He understands the Kaua’i ritual of journeying to Honolulu for expanded shopping opportunities, and hopes that an expanding Kukui Grove will help “close that gap” between Kaua’i and O’ahu offerings.
“We prefer that they stay home,” said Lord, who understands Honolulu has more choices, offers Kauaians a mini-vacation, and knows of the long-established tradition of jetting off to O’ahu to shop. The hardest times at Kukui Grove, with competition from other stores and centers, recessions, landlord and management concerns, and other issues, are long gone, he feels. “I think it’s seen the worst of times,” and is coming back strong.
