COVID-19 hits hard again. Last week, Regal Cinemas announced they will close all 536 movie theaters in the United States. There are eight theaters in Hawaii with four on Oahu.
With no end in sight, how will landlords relet these large spaces? Will landlords repurpose the space?
Regal’s Iwilei location poses an unique situation. With people working from home and Regal closing, could Castle & Cooke repurpose their commercial space to residential? With much of Kaka’ako being built out, maybe Iwilei can be the next residential planned community.
Just think about it. Iwilei is close to Kaka’aka, Ala Moana, and Downtown. Second, there‘s Costco, Home Depot, Lowes, and Best Buy nearby. Third, Chinatown is always evolving, especially with American Savings Bank building their new corporate office by A’ala Park.
We have a chronic housing shortage. Iwilei can be a solution to creating more (affordable) housing. It will be interesting to see how things play out.
-Roda