Two restaurants, a tour boat and a taxi stand.
That’s all that will be left at Aloha Tower Marketplace next month as redevelopment work approaches for the once-bustling but long-struggling waterfront retail complex at Honolulu Harbor.
The new owner of the marketplace, Hawaii Pacific University, notified 17 tenants Friday that they must move out by March 17 to make way for construction envisioned to bring new life and a vastly different mix of uses to the property.
HPU plans to convert much of the 165,000-square-foot center with two levels into a complex with university facilities including classrooms, a library and offices as well as new restaurants and retail.
Much of the second floor would become dorms for about 300 students for Hawaii’s largest private university, which also has facilities in downtown Honolulu and in Kaneohe.
The 17 marketplace tenants were on month-to-month leases, and include magnet retailer Mag-Neat-O, Ann’s Fashion and Star Apparel.
Employees at several stores said they were either unaware of the eviction notices or were not authorized to comment.
HPU spokesman Todd Simmons said the university had been communicating its plans with merchants and gave as much advance notice as possible.
The university expects to start construction in the next several weeks or so.
Only four tenants that had long-term leases will remain through the redevelopment work: Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Hooters, the Star of Honolulu tour boat and TheCAB.
HPU has said it intends to attract considerable retail tenants to the marketplace, though the size and number would largely depend on demand.
The university shared a preliminary site plan with the state in August that showed nearly half or more of the marketplace’s first floor was intended for HPU facilities.
Under that conceptual plan dubbed HPU’s Aloha Tower Campus, the largest ground-floor space would be occupied by a library. Other HPU uses included a computer lab, housing office, fitness center, pool hall, graduate center, classrooms and an admissions and welcome center.
Simmons said plans for available first-floor space are still in flux but "for the most part" designate the best spaces for retail, dining and gathering spaces that should increase consumer traffic.
"It will be the kind of uses that bring people here," Simmons said.
As recently as 2012 the marketplace was about 70 percent vacant.
The marketplace was built in 1994 and started off well. But future phases of development that included residential, hotel and office use intended to help support the retail element were never built. That led to more than a decade of financial difficulties that included bankruptcy.
Real estate developer Ed Bushor bought the marketplace, but not the state-owned land under it, in 2011 for $14 million in partnership with HPU, which provided most of the money to buy the center.
Bushor advanced a $32 million improvement plan that included HPU dorms upstairs but nearly all retail on the ground floor.
The developer’s plan also included turning an adjacent building at Pier 10 into a sports and entertainment complex with an indoor spectator capacity of 1,000 to 2,000 and accommodating university basketball and volleyball games, concerts, performances and other community events.
Then in late 2012, HPU bought out Bushor’s interest in the project and began modifying the plans, including elimination of the sports complex.
Simmons said the university will be able to share plan details after they are finalized.
"It’s pretty exciting," he said of what is envisioned.
