International Market Place landowner signs lease deal

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RENDERING COURTESY IMP HAWAII
rendering courtesy IMP hawaii The $350 million redevelopment of the International Market Place is expected to start at the end of this year and finish in the spring of 2016. An artist's rendering shows the entrance to the retail bazaar on Kalakaua Avenue.

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Queen Emma Land Co. has finalized a deal to lease its International Market Place property in Waikiki to previously tentative development partner Taubman Centers Inc.

The lease signing, announced Friday by Queen Emma Land, allows the roughly $350 million redevelopment of the 56-year-old retail bazaar to commence as expected around year’s end and finish in spring 2016.

Queen Emma Land and Taubman signed the lease recently, following an announcement in June that luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue committed to anchor the new center with an 80,000-square-foot store taking up a little less than 25 percent of the roughly 360,000-square-foot project.

The project seemed all but certain to some with the Saks announcement, but the landowner and Taubman had yet to settle on lease terms.

Eric Martinson, president of Queen Emma Land, said in a statement that the landowner, an affiliate of The Queen’s Medical Center, is very excited to have reached the latest stage after years of planning.

"This comes at a critical time for us, as health care reform is affecting hospital budgets nationwide," he said. "When it opens, the new International Market Place will provide a renewed and sustainable income source for The Queen’s Medical Center, allowing us to continue caring for Hawaii’s people for years to come."

Redevelopment of the marketplace has been in the works for five years since Queen Emma Land solicited development partners to lease the marketplace site in 2008. Taubman, along with its real estate finance partner CoastWood Capital Group LLC, was selected in 2010 under a nonbinding partnership.

Taubman, a Michigan-based mall developer, completed an environmental impact statement last year, clearing a major hurdle in moving the project forward.

The new open-air center with three stories will preserve several large canopy trees, including an exceptional banyan, and is designed to celebrate the International Market Place’s iconic and nostalgic past.

Other elements of the center covering six acres will be space for about 60 stores, a 750-stall parking garage and seven restaurants on a third-level lanai with outdoor dining.