Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center opened on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki, in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1980. The mall is still there, three buildings on the same ground, under a shorter name.
For 25 years it was a concrete mall that faced inward, with its shops behind thick walls. Kamehameha Schools owned it, and its tenants ran from souvenir shops to international luxury brands.
By the early 2000s vacancies had climbed as high as 40 percent. The school rebuilt the center between 2005 and 2008. The walls came down. An open grove went in where the waterfall court had been…