Plans for new Costco, Zippy’s closure in Waipahu met with pushback

News admin June 1, 2026 0 Comments

Plans for new Costco, Zippy’s closure in Waipahu met with pushback

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The vacant building that was once the Don Quijote in Waipahu could be home to Hawaii’s first Costco Business Center.

There are 30 Costco Business Centers across the country, and unlike other Costco locations, the stores cater to businesses by selling items in bulk.

During a Waipahu neighborhood board meeting Thursday, some expressed concern over the plan, which considers replacing the Zippy’s that is also on the property with a gas station.

“You’re going to have a fight on your hands,” a board member told Costco Wholesale director of real estate development Christine Lasley.

“I understand, ma’am,” she told the board member.

Lasley explained, “We have to deal with that with our developer. Unfortunately, there’s not enough room for all of us to exist.”

However, Zippy’s vice president of marketing, Kevin Yim, who was also at the meeting, disagreed.

“Let me be clear once again, we welcome Costco. But, as our friend, the neighbor, our next-door neighbor. There’s no place we can move along Farrington Highway that is exactly the same as where we are now, we hope to stay exactly where we are,” Lim said.

Lasley also addressed worries over traffic.

“With the cost of fuel nowadays, we have been in the process of expanding our fuel centers and this will be a location that will actually be larger than the Iwilei location,” Lasley said.

Another representative added, “I know that there’s going to be more traffic associated with the center as well, so as Christine mentioned, this is a lot less traffic than a regular Costco, totally different mixture of clientele.”

Lasley added, “Basically, less single-family consumer traffic that we’re dealing with.”

During a presentation about the proposal, Lasley clarified the center, “is not limited to businesses only, any card-carrying Costco member can enter a business center, and we welcome that.”

Lasley mentioned the center could benefit the community.

“What I want to highlight here is that if this project is approved, there’d be 200-plus employees, jobs, for this business center,” Lasley said.

If approved, Costco hopes to have the center up and running by 2029.

Zippy’s sent a statement to HNN saying, “Zippy’s is happy to welcome Costco to the neighborhood, but as our neighbor. We have been proudly serving the Waipahu community for 55 years and would like to continue serving it for generations to come. We look forward to working with Costco and the fee owner to work out an amicable solution.”