Discount chain Target eyeing Windward Mall

Discount department store chain Target appears to have Oahu expansion plans that would add life to an empty end of Windward Mall where Sears closed a two-level store in 2019.

The Minneapolis-based retailer with seven stores in Hawaii applied for a city building permit last week to demolish the interior of the former Sears store at the regional shopping center in Kaneohe at an estimated cost of $1 million.

A Target spokeswoman declined to confirm whether a new store is planned at the mall, saying there are a lot of steps between searches for new locations and announcing planned store openings.

“We are continually evaluating potential store locations to serve new guests, but I don’t have any new-store news to share at this time,” Jill Lewis said in a statement.

Mall management did not respond to a request for comment, but local retail real estate consultant Stephany Sofos said Target opening a store in a mall that has struggled to excel during much of its nearly 40-year history is a smart move.

Kaneohe, Sofos said, is a community with a lot of disposable household income, and much of the neighboring rural region stretching to Oahu’s North Shore has hardly any major shopping options.

“Target will definitely impact the community with more retail they crave,” she said. “There’s not a lot there for the community.”

Sofos added that a 130,000-square-foot Target store that opened in neighboring Kailua in 2015 can coexist with a Target in Kaneohe occupying the former Sears space, which is about the same size and represents the typical size of a Target store.

Kaneohe resident Bill Schilling said Target, which sells apparel, electronics, furniture, toys and other merchandise along with groceries, will draw more people to what he views as a dying mall.

“We need more retail,” he said. “Target sells everything. It’s like one-stop shopping. That’s what we need.”

Windward Mall was developed on land owned by Kamehameha Schools in 1982 as an enclosed, three-wing shopping center with roughly 500,000 square feet of retail space and about 110 tenants. It was originally anchored by department stores Liberty House at one end, J.C. Penney at another and Sears at the other.

Today, Macy’s occupies the Liberty House space it acquired in taking over the kamaaina chain, while Ross Dress for Less and Regal Cinemas filled the J.C. Penney space after the national retailer closed its Windward Mall store in 1998 ahead of a complete withdrawal from Hawaii in 2003.

Target has nearly 1,900 stores nationwide and has been in expansion mode despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year, the company opened 30 stores and closed one. The year before, Target opened 26 stores and closed two.

The first two Target stores in Hawaii opened on the same day in 2009 to large crowds in Kapolei and Salt Lake. The retailer’s other Hawaii stores are at Ala Moana Center, Kailua, Hilo, Kailua­Kona and Kahului.