How much will it cost next year?

The projected cost of the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Democratic Leadership has doubled since last year, when University of Hawaii administrators agreed to slow the pace of the project honoring the late U.S. senator.

Now UH regents are weighing a recommendation to spend $5.2 million to design the UH-Manoa site, which has mushroomed in size and cost. The initial plan, floated shortly after Inouye died in December 2012, penciled out at $25 million, while the latest version is projected to cost upwards of $50 million.

It seems the yearlong delay led to the opposite of its intended effect.

Ala Moana Center sure has changed

There’s no way to see the closure of Foodland at Ala Moana Center as anything other than a sad page in the chronicle of that shopping mecca, largely because of what it signals about the clientele being envisioned for the place.

The supermarket used to be a magnet for shoppers living in area highrises, as one of only a few grocery outlets within easy reach of residents. Of course, tourists who longed for simpler fare, perhaps picking up something for an impromptu picnic, loved it, too.

It was also one of the few remaining tenants from an earlier era for the center, when its focus was on middle-class retail needs more than the high-tone fashion boutiques of the present.

The denizens of the soon-to-be-reborn Ala Moana and Kakaako districts will have a supermarket option, but it, too, is upscale: Whole Foods, coming soon to Ward.

Better budget a bit more for groceries now.