Bigger digs await Fisher Hawaii

A nearly 90-year-old local office and school supplies retailer is about to open what will be its biggest store in history as part of the second step of a relocation and expansion move.

Fisher Hawaii anticipates opening the store Dec. 28 in the cavernous space of a former Sony distribution warehouse in Mapunapuna near the airport.

The new 30,000-square-foot store connected with a 35,000-square-foot warehouse was created in response to a protracted eviction effort by the landlord of Fisher’s former 50,000-square-foot warehouse and store at 450 Cooke St. in Kakaako.

Fisher opened a 17,000-square-foot store at 690 Pohukaina St. near its former location in October as a first step to replace the old store, but that operation is expected to be relatively temporary under a two-year lease with the state, which owns the site slated to be redeveloped with a moderate-priced residential rental tower.

Al Hirata, Fisher’s general manager, said the relocation was difficult but that the new Mapunapuna facility has better display areas and less mixing between warehouse and retail operations.

“The place is more suited for our operations,” he said about the Mapunapuna space, which Fisher is leasing from Sony in the industrial neighborhood.

The new store is set up with a bigger and more prominent area for art and classroom supplies that has its own entrance and cash registers.

“We’ve never had this much fine art” merchandise, said Tom Hallaman, Fisher’s director of operations.

Another entrance and set of cash registers caters to a variety of other products from office machines to cleaning supplies.

Fisher also was able to create separate display areas for commercial office furniture and consumer office furniture. “Now there’s a definite differentiation,” Hirata said, adding that the showroom for commercial office furniture is about five times bigger.

To staff the store, Hallaman said up to 50 more employees are needed in retail and warehouse positions. Filling enough of the jobs will determine whether the Dec. 28 goal for a soft opening is met, he said.

Fisher’s move is part of a slow-moving conversion of Kakaako from a largely industrial area to a residential urban neighborhood dotted with high-rises along with retailers and restaurants often found in shopping malls.

Kamehameha Schools, owner of Fisher’s former warehouse and store building on Cooke Street, needed the property back to advance its master plan for redeveloping nine blocks it owns in the area with a mix of shops, restaurants and up to seven residential towers.

The charitable trust, which is the biggest private landowner in Hawaii and educates Native Hawaiian children, sued Fisher in February after Fisher refused to vacate the property despite its lease expiring in July 2014. Fisher moved out of the space and resolved the litigation when it opened the nearby Pohukaina Street store in October.

Fisher was founded in 1929 as a Honolulu office equipment and printing firm called Multigraphy, List &Letter Co. In 1933 Geoffrey C. Fisher and Hy Hollaway bought the business and named it Fisher Corp. Subsequent ownership changes included spinning off the printing division, employee ownership in 1966 and acquisition by the Ronald Ho family in 1978.