Top 10 Retail Experiences: No. 9 Ala Moana

“You land for the first time in Honolulu, pick up your luggage, get into a taxi and ask the driver what you need to see. First thing he’ll tell you is not to miss Ala Moana,” said Jake Wilson, Brookfield Properties’ VP of property management in Hawaii. “I’m not kidding.”

Ala Moana, the world’s largest open-air shopping center with 2.4 million sq. ft. of GLA, gets 53 million visitations a year. It was panned by critics when it opened in 1959 (the year Hawaii achieved statehood), but eventually displaced downtown Honolulu as Oahu’s retail hub. Today it has its own post office as well as a branch of Honolulu’s Town Hall.

The center puts on 500-plus events a year. Its Center Stage hosts daily Hula shows, and this year’s winner of the Little League World Series—the Hawaii Team—signed autographs and posed for selfies with adoring fans at the property.

Situated 6,500 miles from Osaka and 2,500 miles from Los Angeles, the center is employed as a launching point for American retail brands looking to expand in Asia and Asian brands getting a feel for new customers in the States.

 “In Ala Moana you could be walking next to a billionaire, or a couple from Kansas City on their honeymoon, or the locals who visit three or four times a week,” Wilson said.

The 500-plus stores and dining options on the property range from Marshall’s to Ferragamo, Sbarro to Morton’s Steak House, and Famous Footwear to Prada. In a city whose thermometers hit 80 degrees in February, Moncler has a store that sells thousand-dollar down jackets.

“Ala Moana is a center for the international customer, to whom we’re able to showcase the best of brands and the most popular brands,” Wilson observed. “When we opened the first Chick-fil-A on Oahu, we had folks lining up at four a.m. for a 10 o’clock opening.”