Kaneohe facelift should help real estate there

Last year I had a client looking at homes in Kaneohe, but after driving around for a couple ours they decided that Kaneohe just felt a little forgotten, run down. The stores were not nicely updated like Kailua town, and a lot of the city just felt a little dirty.

But recently Windward Mall completed a huge face lift that has made the mall a lot nicer to visit. It feels like a totally different place. When I drove some clients there 2 weeks ago, (a young couple) they really like the way the mall looked. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have liked it a year ago.

The mall house has new floors, new palm trees, lighting, murals, etched glass, nice new sitting areas and more. Borders and Starbucks opened, which makes it feel much more modern.

The Advertiser said that "Occupancy had fallen to less than 70 percent in 2001, and longtime tenants recall years of dwindling sales.Now, 96 percent of the mall space is filled and sales at in-line stores — those occupying less than 10,000 square feet of retail space — have risen 26 percent from July 2006."

A few weeks ago when I was driving through Kaneohe, I definitely noticed that it felt a lot different in the whole area around the mall too. Since everything around Kaneohe is about 20-30 years old, it makes sense that now would be the time when things get renovated.

The bottom line is that this should help Kaneohe real estate prices. Before it was sort of an ugly step sister to Kailua, which has nicer beaches and received a face lift a few years ago. Now Kaneohe can hold its head up high and draw buyers of homes again.

What Kaneohe has always had is location. With easy access to H3 and the Pali, you can get into town, to Aiea, and just about anywhere very easily. And of course there is the gigantic bay, which has great fishing, and lots of watersports. However, there are plenty of hammerhead sharks, so don't go swimming by yourself.

It's time to put Kaneohe back in your home search.