Foodland Super Market Ltd. was an original tenant of Ala Moana Center and its departure last December from Hawaii’s largest shopping mall was much lamented. So it’s great to see that the locally owned grocery chain will be returning to Ala Moana next year, in a much larger, more accessible space in the redeveloped Ewa end of the mall.

The 47,395-square-foot Foodland Farms, slated to open in July 2016, will be the company’s largest Hawaii store and a much-needed addition to the limited grocery-shopping options in the rapidly growing Ala Moana-Kakaako neighborhoods.

HCDA hangs tough with Kakaako developer

The agreement forged with Howard Hughes Corp. to build 375 moderately priced condo units in Kakaako should encourage Honolulu’s affordable-housing advocates. The agreement emerged because of pushback from the governing board of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which, under the leadership of Chairman John Whalen, rejected a proposal by Hughes to provide only 15 years of affordable rentals while retaining ownership of the property.

With the agreement, the owners of the new units would be able to keep the units or eventually resell them — presumably at a profit, given the prime location of the property.