Honolulu Condos: New Waikiki Retail Complex - The Waikiki Shopping Plaza

New Waikiki Retail Complex - The Waikiki Shopping Plaza

The Waikiki Shopping Plaza's new five-story, 30,000-square-foot addition will be "move-in" ready later this year and open for business in early 2011.

The space, on the mauka corner of Kalakaua and Royal Hawaiian avenues, previously was a standalone building that was home to a Bank of Hawaii branch. It was demolished last year to build the addition, which will connect to the existing Waikiki Shopping Plaza.

Currently known as 2230 Kalakaua, the addition was designed by Honolulu-based MGA Architecture; Swinerton Builders is the general contractor.

MGA Principal Matt Gilbertson told PBN on a recent tour that the still-under-construction building will be Waikiki's newest gem, combining modern and contemporary design elements with natural and ahupuaa-inspired features.

For example, the building's face along Kalakaua Avenue will have five curtainwall glass panels that resemble waterfalls. Behind them will be drywall-encased steel structures that resemble trees.

"There is not a lot of natural environment when you think of Waikiki, so this is an attempt to go back to nature," Gilbertson said. "While we can't bring back a park, we can inspire it to be a building in what we call urban nature and try to incorporate elements that make you feel like how you do in nature."

Gilbertson's team is seeking LEED silver certification for the project's "core and shell" and is touting features such as green roofs and walls (that help cool the building naturally), bamboo, and so-called regenerative-drive elevators that can recapture or produce their own electricity as they travel between floors.

The building's centerpiece will be the rooftop Bliss Restaurant and Ultralounge, the newest venture from Honolulu developer Leighton Mau, who owns 2230 Kalakaua, Waikiki Shopping Plaza and Waikiki Business Plaza.

Gilbertson declined to disclose the project's cost or details on possible tenants for the addition, which is being built for retail, restaurants and offices.

But national beauty retailer Sephora has leased a ground-floor space at 2230 Kalakaua and expects to open by the end of the year. It will be Sephora's third Hawaii store. The first opened at Ala Moana Center in 1999 with the second at Pearlridge Center in 2007.

Future tenants that do their own buildouts will be asked to consider other sustainable design elements as well, Gilbertson said.