Home Depot's Newest Hawaii Store Is A Converted Grocery Store

One of Home Depot’s newest - and best - recent store openings was a conversion of a food court property in Hawaii; more adaptive reuse projects may follow

Between 2018 and 2022 Home Depot HD 0.00%↑ opened just 13 new U.S. stores.

But last year Home Depot announced plans to open 80 new U.S. stores in 5 years.

8 of these new stores opened in 2023; another 12 are set to open in 2024.

Home Depot wants to add stores both in areas experiencing significant population growth and where a new store can relieve pressure on existing high volume stores.

Some new stores will be ground-up developments where Home Depot acquires property, obtains the requisite entitlements (and re-zoning as necessary) and constructs a new building — a process that can often take years.

But other new stores will be created via adaptive reuse of existing buildings.

And open much sooner.

Like the new Home Depot store in that opened exactly one year ago in a former food court and grocery store on Mapunapuna Street in Honolulu.

It opened within a year after Home Depot acquired the building.

Home Depot converted the ~140,000 square foot building that previously operated as the Moanalua 99 Food Court (and before that the 99 Ranch Asian Market) for 25 years.

The food court had hosted a number of Asian and local eateries (as well as mini markets and craft fairs) in the Mapunapuna industrial area near the Honolulu airport

For many budding restaurants, the Moanalua Food Court had provided a launching pad to build a brand and customer base - and ultimately open other locations

But COVID dealt a significant blow to many of the tenants and the building owner

Which paved the way for Home Depot to acquire the building in 2022 and convert it into its newest Hawaii location.

The new Home Depot store opened just one year later in December 2023.

And it has been well received with its ample parking, indoor garden center, project planning area for Pro customers and the largest tool storage area on island.

Not only is the new store popular with customers — but it is also off to a hot start.

Home Depot executives have specifically called out the strong performance of the new Honolulu store in just its first few months of operation.

While Home Depot opened its new Honolulu store just a year after acquiring the building, other prospective new stores are taking much longer to open.

Especially for new “ground-up” developments where the process to acquire, entitle and construct a store is often taking Home Depot two years or more to complete.

For instance, in February 2022 Home Depot started the process to acquire and re-zone a 14 acre property in Naples, FL to develop and construct a brand new store.

But more than two years later the Company has still yet to secure all approvals and permits, let alone begin construction on the new store.

In fact as of last month the re-zoning of the site had not even been completed.

If Home Depot’s new development projects move at the glacial pace of its proposed new Naples store, the Company may struggle to open stores in a timely manner.

So the adaptive reuse and repurpose of Big Box sites will likely be critical for Home Depot to meet its new store opening targets.

It helps that Home Depot is no stranger to adaptive reuse projects.

In addition to the newly opened Honolulu store, Home Depot has also repurposed buildings once occupied by Sam’s Club, Sports Authority, Builders Square and HQ.

And during its rapid store opening period in the 1990s and early 2000s, Home Depot repurposed and/or redeveloped at least 80 former Kmart sites.

So it is likely that adaptive reuse will be a key part of Home Depot’s plan to open 80 new stores over the next 5 years.

Just as it has been for Home Depot throughout the Company’s history.