PEARLRIDGE CENTER
Kamehameha Highway and Kaonohi Street
Honolulu County (Aiea), Hawaii

The third shopping mall on the island of O'ahu was built 7.5 miles northwest of the Hawaii Statehouse, in the Aiea ["iy-ahh-ay"] area of Honolulu. It was adjacent to the the western section of the Queen Liliuokalani ["lee-lee-oo-oo-kuh-lah-nee"] Freeway / Interstate H-1, opened to traffic in 1972.

PEARLRIDGE CENTER was to eventually occupy 51.8 acrea of a 67.9 acre plot. The land parcel was shared with the 13.3 acre Sumida (watercress) Farm. An additional 2.8 acres were eventually utilized for the Kapi'olani Medical Center (1988).

A 2-level (150,000 square foot), Honolulu-based Liberty House became the first store to open at the mall, in 1971. It featured plexiglass "fashion capsules" with two mannequins in each. These capsules moved up and down along the store's escalator.

Liberty House anchored the 2-level PHASE I mall structure, dedicated in 1972. PHASE I included a 2-level (102,900 square foot) J.C. Penney, as well as Ritz Store, Playwell Toys, Daiei Asian Market, Lum's Restaurant, DJ's Sound City Records, Foxmoor Casuals, Hickory Farms of Ohio, Farrell's Ice Cream, Hartfield's, See's Candies and Spencer Gifts.

A 2-level (185,000 square foot) Sears opened at the site in 1974. Built as a freestanding store on the southern section of the property, it became the anchor of the PHASE II mall complex when it was completed in 1976. PHASE II consisted of three retail levels and included Longs Drugs and Japan-based Shirokiya.

With the completion of PHASE II in 1976, a third level opened in the PHASE I structure, which consisted of a station for the mall's new Skycab monorail system.

The .2 mile Skycab connected the PHASE I and PHASE II structures. It joined Fort Worth, Texas' Tandy Center Subway (1963-2002) and the ACTS (1976-1989), at Dearborn, Michigan's FAIRLANE TOWN CENTER, as the third shopping mall transit system in the nation.

The Pearlridge Cinema IV opened, in the PHASE I mall, in the summer of 1976. The PHASE III structure, a 1-level, strip center, opened in 1977. By this time, PEARLRIDGE CENTER included the 8-story Pearlridge Office Center, an outparcel bank building and 163,000 square foot retail annex, at the west end of the mall site.

Aside from ALA MOANA CENTER (1959), KAHALA MALL (1970) and ROYAL HAWAIIAN CENTER (1979) [these between 9 and 13.7 miles southeast, in sections of Honolulu], commercial competition came from WINDWARD MALL (1982), 9 miles northeast, in / around Kane'ohe, on the eastern shore of O'ahu.

A multi-level parking structure was built along with the PEARLRIDGE CENTER PHASE II mall. It extended, over Pali Momi Street, to the PHASE III building. A second parking garage was added, west of Liberty House, in 1989. Third and fourth garages were completed, at the east end of the mall site, in 1990.

With all components now in place, PEARLRIDGE CENTER encompassed 1,250,000 leasable square feet. The mall was to feature a second cinema complex when the Pearlridge 12 opened (in the PHASE III structure) in 1990. It was expanded to a 16-plex in 2000. At this time, the original cinema, in PHASE I, was shuttered and converted to office spaces.

The 1990s brought another commercial competitor for PEARLRIDGE CENTER. The open-air WAIKELA CENTER, built 4.3 miles northwest, in / around Waipahu, was completed in 1993.

During 1996, the entirety of PEARLRIDGE CENTER was given a 3.5 million dollar facelift renovation. At this time, the PHASE I mall was renamed UPTOWN...PHASE II as DOWNTOWN. PHASE III became PEARLRIDGE EAST and the western outparcel (with a new Circuit City) became PEARLRIDGE WEST.

Anchor store rebrandings commenced November 22, 2001, with the conversion of Liberty House to Macy's. J.C. Penney, who closed all stores in the Aloha State on January 10, 2003, left a vacant anchor on the east end of DOWNTOWN.

The store sat vacant for over a year. It was eventually subdivided into twenty-nine inline store spaces, with the newly-refurbished area referred to as UPTOWN II. Retailers began opening in November 2004. Tenants included Sharper Image, Guess?, Hollister, Abercrombie and Borders.

Built upon land owned by the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Trust Estate and leased by Honolulu-based Watercress-Pearlridge Associates, LP, PEARLRIDGE CENTER is the state's largest fully-enclosed shopping center. It currently features one hundred and seventy stores and services.

Sources:

"Pearlridge Center" article on Wikipedia
www.pearlridgeonline.com
www.hawaiithreads.com
www.hawaiistores.com
Honolulu County, Hawaii property tax assessor website