Walgreens buys Kapiolani office building
Walgreen Co. has made its first real estate purchase in Hawaii, buying the office building next door to the store it is opening on Kapiolani Boulevard.
The Deerfield, Ill.-based drug store chain plans to open its first store in the Islands at the former Tower Records site at the corner of Kapiolani and Keeaumoku Street before Thanksgiving.
The company recently closed on the five-story office building at 1500 Kapiolani Blvd. for an undisclosed amount. The seller was Kourin Hong Kong Ltd.
The building's tenants include Heald College and FedEx Kinkos.
"We don't have any immediate plans for that building," said Walgreens spokesman Michael Polzin. "It gives us some options for that store site for the future."
Polzin said that store, which will occupy the old Tower Records store is smaller than most Walgreens, whose standard footprint is 14,500 square feet, and it won't have a drive-through pharmacy nor much parking.
The former Tower Records site is on leased land that abuts the office building's nearly one-acre parcel, which has street frontage on Kapiolani and Makaloa Street.
Polzin said Walgreens typically owns about 20 percent of its store sites, and holds long-term ground leases on the rest.
In Kaneohe, Walgreens plans to demolish the existing Star Markets store on Kamehameha Highway and build a 14,800-square-foot store on the leased land, across the street from Windward Mall and across the parking lot from Safeway and Longs Drug.
In Kalihi, Walgreens plans to build a 14,500-square-foot store with a drive-through pharmacy on land owned by Kamehameha Schools at the site of the old Kam Bowl near Kamehameha Shopping Center.