Foodland rejoining Ala Moana

After a dramatic end last year to its 55-year history as one of Ala Moana Center’s original tenants, Foodland Super Market Ltd. is returning to Hawaii’s largest shopping mall in July 2016.

The local family-owned company was set to announce Sunday that it will open its biggest store in the islands — an upscale, 47,395-square-foot Foodland Farms — in the redeveloped Ewa wing of the mall.

The flagship store will be the only supermarket in Ala Moana on the ground level beneath the new Nordstrom on Pii­koi Street.

The grocery store will include The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf; its largest R. Field Wine Co., offering gourmet food, wine and cigars; a Foodland Pharmacy; an in-store bank; and an expanded selection of freshly made items, local produce and organic food, to compete with the planned 55,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market scheduled to open in Kaka­ako in 2018.

"To have the opportunity to again be part of a neighborhood we served for more than 50 years is truly an honor," said Jenai Wall, Foodland’s chairwoman and chief executive officer.

Foodland closed its supermarket at Ala Moana in December, citing higher rents that ultimately led executives of Hawaii’s oldest grocery chain to decide not to renew its lease.

"The key difference really is the location, size and parking," said Roger Wall, Foodland’s vice chairman. "In the old location where we were kind of tucked away at the backside of the mall, we had limited exposure, so there may have been a lot of patrons who didn’t even know we were down there. We couldn’t find a way to effectively drive sales given the smaller store size and constrained parking and limited exposure. This new location addressees everything that we really were concerned about and has much better exposure. We really feel the new location is superior in every way."

The much larger store footprint will allow the supermarket to offer a complete selection of groceries so that customers can shop at one place, unlike the old location, which had limited offerings compared with most Foodland stores, he added.

Foodland expects to invest about $125 per square foot, or close to $6 million, to build out the store, according to Wall.

Foodland Farms will hire about 100 workers, compared with 66 employees at the old 18,500-square-foot Ala Moana location.

Aside from the popular poke bowls, Foodland Farms will offer made-to-order sandwiches, pizzas and paninis; a kim chee bar; fresh fish and other seafood; as well as plate lunches and party platters.

"Foodland was one of our original merchants when Ala Moana Center opened in 1959, so we are very excited that the company will be rejoining our family of retailers," said Francis Cofran, Ala Moana’s general manager. "Foodland Farms will be a perfect complement to the center’s expansion, and it will help us better serve our customers and nearby residents."

Foodland Farms is part of Ala Moana’s $572 million, three-level expansion project at the Ewa end of the mall.

The project, which is expanding the former Sears space to 650,000 square feet, will include the first Bloomingdale’s in Hawaii and other large retailers and restaurants, as well as 200,000 square feet for smaller businesses. The project is expected to be completed in November, with Nordstrom relocating to the Ewa wing in March.

The supermarket plans to provide a "will call" service for customers to have their groceries held for pickup at a later time while shopping at other stores in the mall. Shoppers will be able to pull into designated parking stalls in front of the store and have their groceries brought to their cars.

Foodland was founded in 1948 by the late Maurice J. "Sully" Sullivan and was the first supermarket to open in Hawaii at the Market City Shopping Center. It currently has 32 stores and employs nearly 2,700 at Foodland, Sack N Save and Foodland Farms stores on four islands.