Revamped Walgreens ready to open

Walgreen Co., the nation’s largest drugstore chain, will open its expanded and redesigned flagship Ho­­n­olulu store across from Ala Moana Center on Saturday.

The two-story store at 1488 Kapiolani Blvd., opening at 9 a.m., will offer an extensive selection of products and services "unexpected from a drugstore," the Deerfield, Ill.-based retailer said.

That includes a nail salon and upscale LOOK Boutique, which offers an expanded selection of skin and hair care and cosmetics with beauty advisers standing by to color-match skin tones, similar to what customers would find at a specialty makeup retailer such as Sephora.

"You won’t find these typical things in a drugstore or in a typical Walgreens, but we really wanted to accent the community and some of the things you’d want," said Hawaii district manager Scott Sutton.

The retailer spent $39 million acquiring the site several years ago as part of establishing its first store in the state, which opened in 2007 in remodeled space of a former Tower Records. Walgreens then closed the store in September 2013 and demolished the building to make way for a bigger store.

The store has a three-level parking garage with about 200 stalls. Parking is free with validation. A Walgreens spokes­woman wouldn’t disclose how much it invested in the redevelopment.

The store employs 120, up from 20 at the old store.

The first floor features an Upmarket Cafe with made-to-order juice and milkshake bar, fresh sushi, poke and sashimi, as well as wraps, sandwiches and salads, baked goods and frozen yogurt. Among its offerings from 220 local vendors is a Dole Whip kiosk and beer cave stocked with some local selections.

Another main feature of the store is its pharmacy with a pharmacist focused solely on health advice, as well as a private health room for counseling and services such as immunizations and health tests and an express kiosk to allow customers to quickly refill prescriptions.

Sutton says building relationships with customers is what differentiates the company from the competition.

"Service is very important, especially from a health care perspective," he said.

Walgreens boasted about the store’s design in a news release. "The culturally inspired design reflects elements of traditional Hawaiian architecture, as well as embraces components of the natural landscape," the company said.

The modern structure with large glass features is attractive to Wai­pahu resident Jezreel Espectacion, 20, who was walking next to the store Friday afternoon.

"I like it. It looks nice. I can see it from far away," he said. "In the business you need people to see your establishment from afar so they can be attracted. The establishment itself needs to be beautiful."

Downtown resident Claudia Exel, 27, who works at Heald College next door, said the towering structure is overwhelming.

"It’s huge. It’s just really a massive thing of glass," she said. "It doesn’t even look very inviting, either."

Walgreens said it put a lot of effort into adding cultural elements into the design, with Hawaiian words and symbolism throughout the interior of the store.

The 35,576-square-foot store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; pharmacy hours are 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends.

Walgreens officials will mark the opening with a private Hawaiian blessing at 8 a.m. The company also is making a $5,000 donation to the Hawaii chapter of the American Diabetes Association.

Walgreens has 18 stores in the islands. The company plans to open a location at the Market City Shopping Center in Kai­muki at the end of March and a smaller community pharmacy on Pii­koi Street in early summer.