PO’IPU – A new shopping center is planned for a seven-acre piece of Knudsen property across Koloa Road from Old Koloa Town. Several prospective tenants have already shown interest in opening up shops in the yet-to-be-built project, said Attorney Stacy
PO’IPU – A new shopping center is planned for a seven-acre piece of Knudsen property across Koloa Road from Old Koloa Town.
Several prospective tenants have already shown interest in opening up shops in the yet-to-be-built project, said Attorney Stacy Wong, sole trustee of the 4,000-acre Eric A. Knudsen Trust.
The shopping center parcel, at the intersection of Maluhia and Koloa roads, is zoned commercial, but won’t be built out nearly as large as the zoning permits, Wong explained, because the owners want an “airy feel” to the center.
Plantation-style architecture will be used on the buildings, he said.
No trees will be removed, though some may be relocated within the property, he told about 100 people at a Po’ipu Beach Resort Association after-hours gathering at Plantation Gardens restaurant at Kiahuna Plantation here.
He envisions the new retail development fitting in very much with the existing Old Koloa Town, creating a town center feeling at the intersection of Koloa and Maluhia roads.
The Knudsen family purchased the Koloa ahupua’a, around 6,000 acres stretching from Mount Kahili to Po’ipu Beach, in the 1860s, Wong said.
Wong and the trust have already won praise from area residents for working to expedite the construction of a second exit from the Koloa post office adjacent to the shopping center site.
He thanked the Koloa Community Association, its President Rick Haviland, Postmaster Mike Kato, and others for making the exit project happen so quickly. Of course, hearing the three magic words from the county, “no permit required,” were music to his ears, and made the project happen that much quicker, Wong told the gathering.
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
