KUKUIULA — Helaine Perel, the general manager for The Shops at Kukuiula, said she was surprised when she got a call from Alexander & Baldwin recently. “They just told me they needed a short bio for the shopping center,” Perel
KUKUIULA — Helaine Perel, the general manager for The Shops at Kukuiula, said she was surprised when she got a call from Alexander & Baldwin recently.
“They just told me they needed a short bio for the shopping center,” Perel said. “It was for the Retail Merchants Association Ho‘okela awards and I couldn’t talk about it to anyone.”
Perel said The Shops at Kukuiula was announced as the recipient of the Shopping Center of the Year Achievement Award, or SCOTY, at the Ho‘okela 2016 annual conference and Ho‘okela Awards, held Oct. 20 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort.
The SCOTY award recognizes an individual or company for Shopping Center Excellence, according to a program from the RMA. The award acknowledges and celebrates the crucial relationship between retailers and shopping centers.
”It must be the work Helaine has done since coming aboard four years ago,” said Melissa McFerrin-Warrack, the assistant manager at The Shops at Kukuiula. “She’s grown a lot of different shops from the day she came in.”
Patrice Pendarvis, an artist who works outside the Palms Gallery during the weekly Kauai Culinary Market and the monthly Kukuiula Art Night, said the special features hosted by the shopping center must have been a factor for the selection.
“This is the greatest market I’ve been to,” Pendarvis said. “The people (both shoppers and center staff) are really nice, and it’s a great place to be able to work and talk to people.”
Built in 2009, The Shops at Kukuiula in Poipu is a resort retail center covering 89,000 square feet. The center is positioned next to the 1,000-acre master plan luxury community of Kukuiula, the island’s only residential private club community.
