Walk the promenade at The Shops at Mauna Lani on a Tuesday morning and you will pass a stretch of dark storefront glass before you reach the line forming at Mauna Lani Coffee Company. Foodland Farms will have carts circling for parking. Tommy Bahama's lanai will already have a few tables filled for an early lunch. The empty windows and the full parking spots sit twenty feet apart, and that contradiction is the real story of this shopping center right now.

For the better part of a decade, the center looked like it was failing. It was not. The businesses residents actually use every week never struggled. What struggled was everything around them, and that distinction matters if you live here and have wondered why a shopping center at the entrance to one of the Kohala Coast's best-known resorts could sit half empty for so long.

A Decade Of Vacant Glass, Explained

The center's prior owner was arrested for manipulating stock prices, a case that eventually put The Shops at Mauna Lani under a court-appointed receiver while lenders worked to stabilize the property. Doug Wood, CEO of Tommy Bahama, described it bluntly to Big Island Now in March 2026: a "failed center for the last 10 years" carrying nearly 50 percent vacancy, with 11 storefronts sitting empty at the time of the sale.

In March 2026, Los Angeles-based BH Properties closed on the acquisition, paying a combined $26 million for the ground lease and the fee-simple interest according to reporting cited by Hoodline. The firm brought in CBRE, led by Kelly Graf and a team that includes Connor Patterson, Kenny Brooks, Wendell Brooks and Kimo Greenwell, to handle leasing and repositioning. Their stated target mix leans toward chef-driven restaurants, lifestyle retail, and boutique fitness and wellness concepts, according to CBRE's own announcement.

Here is the detail that changes how you should read all of this. Wood did not wait for new ownership to show confidence in the location. While the center was still under receivership, at its worst point on paper, he extended Tommy Bahama's lease for at least 10 years, with an option for 20.

"I've invested in our store and restaurant with remodels," Wood told Big Island Now, adding that he has "had a lot of success" at the location despite the surrounding vacancy.

That is not the decision of a tenant watching a sinking ship. It is the decision of someone who knew the customer base never left. The demand was always there. What was missing was a landlord capable of filling the space around the businesses people already relied on.

The Businesses That Never Needed Fixing

If you live in Mauna Lani, you already know which storefronts kept the lights on through the receivership years. Foodland Farms has stayed the grocery anchor for the resort community the entire time, running its deli, bakery and seafood counter daily. Mauna Lani Coffee Company opens early and has been the reliable stop before golf or a beach morning for years. Island Hopper Taproom built a following on a rotating list of roughly 75 draft beers, ciders and seltzers from Hawaiian breweries including Big Island Brewhaus, Ola Brew, Kona Brewing Co. and Maui Brewing Co, alongside a menu of smashburgers and loaded elote fries that turned it into the after-golf stop locals actually use.

None of those businesses show up in the story about failure. They show up in the story about what BH Properties is now trying to build the rest of the center around. The vacancy was concentrated in the boutique and specialty retail spaces that never had the daily foot traffic to survive a directionless landlord. The grocery store, the coffee shop and the taproom did not have that problem because they solve a need that exists every single day, regardless of who owns the ground lease.

The Rhythm That Kept Going Anyway

While the ownership situation played out in court filings, the center's weekly calendar kept running. If you have not tuned into it lately, here is what has been happening on a normal week:

• Sunset Jams on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, five to seven in the evening, with live local acts on the main stage and a beer garden run by Island Hopper Taproom
• Hula performances on Monday and Thursday evenings on Center Stage
• Comedy and magic shows most nights at Kozy's Tiki Palace

These are not new additions dreamed up to distract from the vacancy problem. They predate the sale and they are the kind of recurring, low-cost community draw that a well-run shopping center builds around, rather than the other way around. BH Properties has said it is already working with architects and contractors on bids to reshape the center's common areas to be more engaging for families and events, so expect these gatherings to get more visible support rather than disappear.

What Continues No Matter Who Owns The Retail Center

Retail ownership changes. The Kalāhuipua'a Historic Park does not answer to a receiver. The walking loop through the park covers roughly 1.7 miles on paved paths, passing a lava tube shelter once used for habitation between 1500 and 1700, a set of interpretive petroglyph panels, and a string of ancient fishponds still managed in something close to their original form. The ponds include Kalahuipua'a itself, along with Kahinawao, Waipuhi, Waipuhi Iki, Hope'ala, Milokukahi and Manoku, with bottom samples from the aquaculture system dating back as far as roughly 250 B.C. The trail ends at Makaiwa Bay, a small sandy cove shared by hotel guests and residents, protected enough for easy swimming and snorkeling.

This is the part of daily life in Mauna Lani that a retail center's fortunes cannot touch. It has been free, open from dawn to dusk, and unaffected by any of the leasing drama a quarter mile away, for as long as anyone here has been paying attention.

The Dining Scene Was Never The Weak Link Either

The retail center's struggles also never touched the resort's hotel dining, which has continued building its own reputation independent of the shopping center's tenant mix. CanoeHouse, the oceanfront restaurant that opened in 1989, is now led by Executive Chef Rhoda Magbitang, whose background includes Michelin-starred Mélisse and République. HāLani, the resort's more casual all-day spot, has built a local following around its ube pancakes and balloon bread, dishes that show up in nearly every review of the place. Binchotan continues serving its grilled Japanese-Hawaiian menu nearby, and Napua, tucked into its own private cove at the Beach Club, remains the place residents book when they want a sunset table without the crowd of the main hotel restaurants.

None of these needed the retail center to succeed. They draw on the resort's own guest base and on residents who already know where to eat. What the shopping center's revival stands to add is a denser everyday layer around them, the boutique fitness studio, the additional lifestyle retailer, the extra chef-driven concept that gives people a reason to walk the promenade after dinner instead of just before it.

What To Watch For

CBRE's stated leasing targets suggest the 11 vacant storefronts will start filling with concepts built for people who already live here rather than for the tourist traffic the center originally leaned on. If that plan holds, the next twelve months should bring a noticeably different mix than the one that sat empty for a decade. Whether that translates into a livelier evening scene or just a quieter fix to the vacancy numbers is the one thing this story cannot yet answer.

What can already be answered is the question a lot of residents have quietly asked while walking past those dark storefronts: was something wrong with this place. The answer, based on what the businesses that stayed have actually done, is no. The coffee was always good. The beer selection was always deep. The grocery store never stopped restocking. The problem was never the neighborhood. It was the ownership standing between the neighborhood and the space it was ready to fill.

If you are weighing a move to Mauna Lani, or already call it home and want a clearer read on how changes like this affect property values and daily life here, Doreen Trudeau has been watching this resort closely for years. Work with Doreen — request a private consult.