Tesla reopens Waikiki storefront

Tesla Inc. stores that closed earlier this month in a hasty move that surprised employees, customers and Wall Street are already starting to reopen.

In Hawaii the Tesla store at the International Market Place in Honolulu reopened Monday after shutting its doors March 3, according to Taubman Centers Inc., the real estate investment trust that oversees the lease. A smaller store in Palm Desert, Calif., that closed March 2 is slated to reopen, a Taubman spokeswoman said.

In a blog post late Sunday night, Tesla announced it decided to keep “significantly more” stores open than announced 10 days earlier in a cost-cutting move. As a result of the less drastic wind-down of its retail presence, the company plans to raise vehicle prices by about 3 percent on average worldwide. There will be no price hike for the $35,000 version of the Model 3 sedan.

Tesla’s blog post didn’t give a rationale for why it decided to backpedal on the store closings. The company reported having $1.6 billion in operating lease obligations in its latest annual report, with $1.1 billion due by 2023.

Robert Taubman, CEO of Taubman Centers, said last week that he thought Tesla might rethink its decision to abandon most of its bricks-and-mortar retail locations.

ON THE MOVE

>> Teri Orton, general manager of the Hawai‘i Convention Center, which is managed by AEG Facilities, has been recognized for her leadership in the North American meetings industry. Smart Meetings has named Orton one of the 29 industry leaders in its fourth annual Smart Women in Meetings Awards, which serve as a benchmark for women making impacts on the meetings industry in North America.

>> Porter McGuire Kiakona & Chow, a law firm in Honolulu, has announced that Mike Biechler is its newest associate attorney. Biechler joins the firm’s growing association practice — which handles collections, litigation and covenant violations — serving clients around the state.

>> Waikiki Health has named Phyllis Dendle chief executive officer of the federally qualified health center. She has been a board member of Waikiki Health for the past 10 years and is a former board president. Dendle previously served as director of government relations at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii for 19 years as well as administrator of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii Public Health Fund for 28 years. She was also the chamber’s director of government affairs for eight of those 28 years.