“I don’t believe there’s such thing as an easy project, and this one was no different,” says Dylan Apilado of Swinerton.
While Swinerton is no stranger to taking on difficult projects, Target Waikiki presented Apilado and his team with a series of challenges that tested Apilado and threatened to derail the project schedule and planned opening.
With Apilado as project manager, Swinerton took on the task of building out the shell space for the new Target department store that would take over the former Saks Fifth Avenue space at the International Market Place in Waikīkī. The challenges started early in the process.
FINDING ‘IWI
“The major obstacle we faced was the discovery of ancient human remains, or ‘iwi, in one of the trenches,” says Apilado. All work on the store’s first level was immediately paused due to the findings. With the construction jobsite now an archaeological site, Swinerton’s ability to perform work on the first level was physically constrained due to the stockpiles.
Meanwhile, work on Levels 2 and 3 proceeded as scheduled.
Swinerton worked with the cultural descendants of the ‘iwi as well as meeting the requirements of the State Historical Preservation Division (SHPD).
“A few minor design changes were needed to fulfill the cultural descendants’ requests,” explains Apilado, “such as re-routing piping and building a barrier between the ‘iwi and piping.”
The discovery of the ‘iwi would ultimately lead to a six-month delay of work on the store’s first level — a delay that would bring further challenges for Apilado and the project team down the line.
SPACE CONSTRAINTS
Building any project in an urban center is challenging enough, a reality that is only multiplied when the job site is located in a tourist mecca like Waikīkī.
“There was no room for us to store all of our material and equipment on-site,” according to Apilado, but the owner was able to help Swinerton procure an off-site storage location where all the project’s large deliveries could be received and staged before being brought to the site, which brought its own set of logistical challenges.
“Deliveries to the site needed to be phased and highly coordinated as too many things on-site at once would become a hindrance to efficiently putting work in place,” says Apilado.
ROUND AND ROUND
Prior to Target moving in, the space was home to Saks Fifth Avenue, which anchored the newly redeveloped International Market Place since 2016. As such, the nearly 80,000-square-foot space already had four escalators in place.
Two would be retained by the new Target, meaning two had to be removed. Furthermore, the two that were being kept had to be rotated 180 degrees to align with the layout of the new retailer.
“Moving and storing these escalators within the site was no easy feat,” Apilado explains. “They are large, heavy and require specialized equipment to be able to move around. Careful planning went into place to minimize impacts while we had to keep the escalators within the construction site, since they were too big to be taken out.”
CRUNCH TIME
The six-month delay on Level 1 meant that the clock was working against the project team. All the stops would need to be pulled to reach project completion on-time. For a time, it seemed that one facet of the project threatened to further derail that schedule.
“The electrical scope was one of the largest aspects of this project,” says Apilado. “Due to the large SHPD delay, when it came to crunch time and we recognized the electrician may not have enough manpower to finish on time, we made the call to bring in another electrician to get us back on track and hit the turnover date.”
Apilado believes that at one point, there were over 40 electricians on-site working on the building’s first level to keep things on track.
THE REVEAL
Target Waikiki, the retailer’s tenth store in Hawai‘i, held its grand opening ceremony on Oct. 27, 2024.
“It was close,” says Apilado, crediting the project team’s perseverance and grit for being able to hit that deadline, despite all the challenges they faced.
Since the opening of its first two Hawai‘i stores on O‘ahu in 2009, the Target brand has become somewhat of a staple in the state. Its newest store, which anchors Waikīkī’s largest retail center, contains many of the familiarities that customers have come to expect, including a drive-up order pickup and an in-store Starbucks Café.
Target Waikiki still manages to keep things fresh, however, boasting several unique features that set it apart from the others, starting with a design that aligns with “the aesthetic ofWaikīkī,” as Apilado explains.
“There are floating surfboards, a water feature with the silhouette of Diamond Head and art wallcoverings that really give it the Waikīkī vibe. If you walk into Target Waikiki you will immediately realize how different it is from all the other Targets you’ve been in as the architectural features jump out at you screaming ‘Hawai‘i’ and ‘Waikīkī.’”
LESSONS LEARNED
Between the discovery of ‘iwi, confined spaces, shifting around large escalators and pushing up against the dreaded deadline crunch, it may sound like this project was nothing but trouble, but Apilado does manage to take away several positives from the project.
“Aside from learning the ins and outs of the SHPD process should I encounter ‘iwi findings on a future project, I’ve learned that with a dedicated team you can overcome what seems impossible,” says Apilado, adding “that even when faced with an obstacle that seems unpassable there is always a solution.”
Target Waikiki
List of Subcontractors
(In Alphabetical Order)
American Electric Co. LLC
Beachside Roofing LLC
BrandSafway Services LLC
Climate Pros LLC
Continental Mechanical of the Pacific
Flooring Investment Group LLC
dba Island Flooring
Haas Insulation Inc.
IG Steel LLC
JD Painting & Decorating Inc.
KCK Builders LLC
Maka Construction LLC
Pacific Aquascapes Inc.
Pacific Concrete Cutting & Coring Inc.
Pacific Decorative Concrete Inc.
Rons Construction Corp.
Simmons Steel Corp.
US Glass and Aluminum Inc.
Window World Inc.
