Whole Foods Market is the newest addition to the Ward Village redevelopment.

The upscale grocer said Tuesday it has signed a lease to open another Hono­lulu store, which will be built as part of a mixed-used project at the site of the former Nordstrom Rack, existing Office Depot and a surface parking lot.

Whole Foods said the new 50,000-square-foot store at the Ewa-makai corner of Queen and Kama­kee streets will be its Hawaii flagship store and the largest in the state. Construction is scheduled to begin next year with the store anticipated to open in 2017.

The grocer said it expects to hire 150 to 200 employees to add to the chain’s workforce of just more than 700 in the state.

"It’s a fantastic site," said Claire Sullivan, Whole Foods’ Hawaii coordinator, purchasing and public affairs. "We’ve been really interested in having a Whole Foods in the Kakaako area. It’s a vibrant area. We think we’ll be well received there."

The grocer announced its Oahu expansion during the release of its first-quarter financial results Tuesday in which it reported flat earnings of $142 million. The Kakaako store will be the company’s third on Oahu and fourth in the state.

The Kakaako Whole Foods store will be built on the site of the surface parking lot in front of Office Depot and the former Nordstrom Rack store. There will be a parking garage with about 500 stalls above the new Whole Foods.

The building that housed Nordstrom Rack and Office Depot will be torn down to make way for a new residential condo tower with parking and retail space.

"The whole block will be redeveloped," said Nick Vanderboom, senior vice president of development for Howard Hughes Corp. "We’ll be putting in a road on the Ewa side of the block and a road between Ward Entertainment and the redeveloped project. By adding roads, we’ll be providing improved access to not only the mixed-use project, but Ward Entertainment Center and future projects in Ward Village."

Whole Foods first entered Hawaii in 2008 with its Kahala Mall store, which is just over 28,000 square feet. That was followed in 2010 by a 27,000-square-foot store in Kahului and its most recent store, a 32,000-square-foot Kailua outlet which opened in 2012.

Sullivan said delays caused Whole Foods to walk away from Kakaako in 2008 when it was looking at the site that is now occupied by TJ Maxx.

"We were disappointed to miss out on the opportunity the first time around," she said.

"We have been eagerly looking for a good location in the Kakaako area."

Local retail analyst Stephany Sofos said the discovery of iwi, or bones of Native Hawaiians; the recession; developer General Growth Properties’ bankruptcy; and contraction in the marketplace all contributed to Whole Foods reassessing its previous plans for Kakaako.

"But now the market seems to be coming back, and everybody seems to be going forward," she said. "This Kakaako development is going to be a city within a city. And where do people go when they’re in a city? It’s to the grocery store to get food. This is over an acre of land, and it’s going to have a restaurant, a deli and a bar, so it’s actually going to become the center of socializing as well as buying your groceries in a safe, convenient atmosphere."

Sullivan said the design for the new store is being developed, and she couldn’t elaborate on any of its features.

"All I can assure you at this point is that it will be beautiful and it will be fun," she said.

Dallas-based Howard Hughes, which owns the 60-acre Ward Centers property that it has renamed Ward Village, is in the first phase of a $7.5 billion master plan calling for 22 towers with as many as 4,300 residential units replacing nearly all existing retail, warehouse and other buildings in the area over the next decade or more. The first phase includes two mixed-use residential towers. Anaha is a 311-unit tower on the former site of Pier 1 Imports, while Waiea is a 171-unit luxury tower on the parking lot makai of the Ward Theatres.

Vanderboom said Howard Hughes is looking to relocate Office Depot once it determines the exact timing of the construction.

Nordstrom Rack, meanwhile, closed in November and reopened a few days later in a new 45,000-square-foot space Diamond Head of its former site.

Vanderboom said the Ward Entertainment Center will not be touched during the redevelopment.

"We think Whole Foods will be a fantastic amenity to the neighborhood," he said.

Sofos said Whole Foods is going to be an anchor tenant the developer can build around.

"You’re going to have an awful lot of residential and commercial bodies running around the area, and this is perfect for the area," she said. "I think Whole Foods will do extremely well in that location."