Ward Centre Is Coming Down. Where Did Kaka'ako's Regulars Go?

Ward Centre tenants had until June 30 to move out. By September, Pacific Business News was reporting that demolition had started on the 44-year-old complex. Three months later, the old tenant list has split along a clear line. The places people visited weekly reopened within walking distance: the ramen counter, the bagel shop, the barre studio, the dog groomer, the salon and the used bookstore. Most of the shops people browsed for gifts, aloha wear and Hawaiian goods have either left Kaka'ako, moved online or still have no address.

That split follows a trend that started long before the bulldozers showed up.

The short walk: who reopened nearby

Here's where the services and food stops landed, based on reporting through September.

The details matter if you're going back. Kamitoku took over the former Scratch Kitchen & Meatery space at South Shore Market. It still serves its gyu-kotsu beef bone broth ramen and has added a crispy rib-eye bowl, a wild oxtail soup and a wagyu rib-eye katsu box. As of late July it was BYOB while it waited on a liquor license. It was open for dinner only, 5 to 9 p.m. most nights and until 9:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. A grand opening was still to come, so check its Instagram before you go.

Tali's actually added hours with the move. It's now open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day except Tuesday. At Ward Centre it was closed both Mondays and Tuesdays. The menu is moving toward a full deli, with Boar's Head meats sliced to order and a hot pastrami the owner compares to Katz's. The OurSpace connection came from Ward Centre too. Owner Talia Bongolan-Schwartz told Aloha State Daily that several of the people who started OurSpace came from BoxJelly, the coworking space that also had to leave the center.

The Mian & Bao merger is the one entry here without a confirmation. Honolulu Magazine reported it as planned for July, and no later report has said whether it happened.

Why the errands found space first

Staying close was a deliberate choice. Bongolan-Schwartz said so plainly:

"That was important to us — to stay close enough by that people who have been loyal to us for three years at Ward Centre would be able to hopefully just walk over here."

The Kaka'ako retail market made that choice easier for some tenants than others. When KHON covered the move-out in late June, Mike Hamasu, consulting and research director at Colliers Hawaii, said shopping centers have shifted toward restaurants, fitness and activities because shoppers now go to them for services as much as for goods. "So the shopping center is no longer just for shopping," he said. He also pointed to rising costs for landlords, including security, maintenance, property taxes, electricity and insurance.

Look at the table again with that in mind. A dog groomer, a barre studio, a salon, a ramen shop and a bagel deli are exactly the kinds of tenants Hamasu described landlords looking for. The bookstore is a slightly different case because it's run by Friends of the Library of Hawai'i, but it also stayed within a short walk. Paul Brown had been an anchor at Ward Centre for more than 30 years before moving up the street to Kapi'olani Boulevard.

The longer road for the boutiques

The browse-and-buy shops tell a different story. Most of them ended up outside Kaka'ako, online only, or still in transition, based on Honolulu Magazine's July 8 roundup and later reporting:

• Nā Mea Hawai'i reopened inside Bishop Museum at 1525 Bernice St. in Kalihi.
• Crazy Shirts moved to Waikele Premium Outlets.
• Noa Noa had been at Ward Centre since 1983, a year after the center opened. As of July it was still looking for a new spot, and its Waikīkī store at 226 Lewers St. remains open.
• Mu'umu'u Library & Kīpuka closed their Ward location in June with no new location announced.
• Blue Bird Jewelry dropped its storefront and now focuses on pop-ups and events.
• Taj Clubhouse is now online only.
• Blume Ruhm takes orders through its website. Its site says it's paused Oct. 1 through 10 and will respond to orders starting Oct. 11, and it doesn't list a new storefront.
• Jewelry Plus planned to reopen downtown at 700 Bishop St., Suite 114, in August. We haven't found a report confirming that it opened.

A few non-retail tenants also left the neighborhood. Kids City Adventure is still operating at its Kapolei location, and Studio the Vibe reopened at 620 Dillingham Blvd. Chong Qing Hot Pot told KHON it was moving its Ward Centre customers to a new location at Discovery Center, and its existing Waikīkī restaurant is still open.

Two food businesses are still in limbo. Try Coffee, which operated inside BoxJelly, was looking for a stand-alone space in late June. "That price tag is crazy," owner TK Yamada told KHON. His backup plan: "If not, we'll keep borrowing our friends' places, pop up here and there." Its subscription program has continued without interruption. In mid-September, Pacific Business News reported that the team behind Fat Cheeks had opened a new concept in Little G Cafe's former space, but the original restaurants hadn't relocated.

What goes on the site

The Ward Centre site is planned for two towers. 'Ilima Ward Village would be 33 stories with 148 homes, and Melia Ward Village would be 35 stories with 221. The plan also includes about 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and a one-acre park. In June, the developers told KHON the timeline for demolition and redevelopment hadn't been finalized. Demolition has started since then, but we haven't found a public date for construction to begin or finish.

For comparison, the old center's tenant list ran from hot pot to mu'umu'u to a bookstore. The new plan calls for 20,000 square feet of retail. Given how the move-out sorted itself, food and service businesses look like the most likely tenants for that space, though no tenants have been announced.

Filling the gap this fall

New openings around Ward Village and SALT continue the same pattern. Everything listed below is food, drinks or a gathering spot.

Mosa! opened Sept. 18 at SALT At Our Kaka'ako, 685 Auahi St. #118, in the former 9Bar HNL space. It's open 8 a.m. to midnight every day, the longest hours of its three locations, and serves ice cream wraps and cups topped with shaved peanut, mac nut or pistachio brittle.

Izakaya Lala opened Sept. 23 at 1236 Waimanu St., Suite 203. It's open 5:30 p.m. to midnight, Tuesday through Sunday.

The Pinehopple Room is the new upstairs lounge at Aloha Beer Co., 700 Queen St., in the former HI Brau Room. It's open 5 to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The menu leans on reworked classic Hawai'i cocktails like the Molokai fogcutter, plus a scorpion bowl for two. It mostly takes walk-ins, but staff will hold a table if you call ahead.

Westman Cafe at 1000 Auahi St. has added weekday dinner service from 4 to 9 p.m.

Ward Village also has events this fall:

1. The Kaka'ako Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at 919 Ala Moana Blvd. The next one is Oct. 10.
2. Aloha Friday Music in the Park features Alx Kawakami on Oct. 16, 5 to 7 p.m., at Victoria Ward Park Mauka, 1020 Auahi St. Evan Khay plays Nov. 20.
3. The Halloween Celebration & Pumpkin Patch is Saturday, Oct. 24, 10 a.m. to noon, also at Victoria Ward Park Mauka. It includes face painting and photo spots.
4. First Saturday returns to the South Shore Market courtyard on Nov. 7 and Dec. 5.

Your Saturday loop can still be the farmers market, then ramen at South Shore Market. Bagels moved to Waimanu Street, and the bookstore is on Ward Avenue now.

If the Ward Centre redevelopment has you wondering how a changing block could affect your own place in Kaka'ako, Mavis Nellas is happy to talk it through over coffee. If Try Coffee has reopened by then, we'll meet there. Schedule a Free Consultation and bring your questions about what's coming to Auahi Street.