Malama Market Pahoa Sets Eyes on New Location in 2018

Puna Kai MarketPlace Malama Market Pahoa rendering. Sullivan Family courtesy photo.

Malama Market in Pahoa will move to a new location in 2018.

Sullivan company officials made the announcement Wednesday morning that a new Malama Market property, which will be located within the new Puna Kai center, will be three times the size of its its current Pahoa MarketPlace location and is slated to open in two years.

The Pahoa MarketPlace location has been home to the grocery store since 2005, with a three-month closure in December 2014 as the impending June 2014 Lava Flow threatened the Pahoa community and was on track to run through the Pahoa MarketPlace. The flow ultimately slowed and came to a halt above the store. The store reopened to the community in March 2015.

Malama Market will be the anchor tenant of the new Puna Kai shopping center, located just down the road from Pahoa MarketPlace on Kea’au-Pahoa Road.

The company’s current location will continue to serve as a grocery store to the Puna community until the 35,000 square-foot Puna Kai location is ready to open.

“This community is important to us and thanks to the support of our customers, we’ve outgrown our original store,” said Jenai S.Wall, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Sullivan Family of Companies.  “Our move to Puna Kai will enable us to expand our offerings to better serve our customers, and we look forward to opening a new store that will make this community proud.”

Malama Market Pahoa is one of five Malama Market Stores in the state and is one of three on the Big Island. The other locations are situated in Ocean View and Honoka’a.

Company officials say the new Malama Market at Puna Kai will provide greater variety, wider selections, and new offerings across all departments.

Additional hires are also anticipated.

Malama Market is owned by The Kalama Beach Corporation, one of several retail entities of the Sullivan Family of Companies. The Sullivan Family of Companies operated Foodland, Food Pantry, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Hawai’i, and The Kalama Beach Corporation totaling over 150 retail stores.

The Puna Kai center will include a half-acre of park land with a total lease area of just over 103,000 square feet. Jon McElvaney, developer and real estate consultant, B.T. Kuwahara LLC, Architects, Rhiem/Owensby, Engineering Partners, Inc., and electrical engineer Wallace T. Oki represent the design team for Puna Kai. Michael Rhiem is the architect..