For many years Lewers Street was an armpit of Waikiki.

Today, bordered by two massive redevelopment projects nearing completion, the former dingy delivery truck corridor is contending to become the heart of O'ahu's urban resort.

The transformation from an alley to an attraction only recently began to emerge — and won't be completed for several months — but is expected to result in one of the most dramatic shifts in the epicenter of pedestrian traffic for the state's most urbanized area.

"Ground zero clearly has shifted," said Fred Noa, an executive vice president at commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis in Honolulu.

Roughly $1 billion is being spent on both sides of Lewers makai of Waikiki's main thoroughfare, Kalakaua Avenue, as part of the eight-acre Waikiki Beach Walk retail and hotel redevelopment, and overhaul of the resort's biggest mall, Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center.

At Waikiki Beach Walk, more than half of the 45 new tenants are open, including restaurant anchors Yard House, Ruth's Chris Steak House and Holokai Grill.

Giovani Pastrami, a New York-style deli-pizzeria-sports bar that also will serve breakfast, opened yesterday. Slated to open later are Roy's on April 23 and Coconut Willy's Bar & Grill in September.

The project by Outrigger Enterprises also includes four renovated hotel towers transformed into a new Embassy Suites Hotel and Wyndham Vacation Ownership time-share.

At Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, two anchor restaurants — Senor Frog's and P.F. Chang's — will front Lewers. The mall, owned by Kamehameha Schools, also has congregated its luxury fashion retailers toward its 'ewa end.

Local real estate consultant Stephany Sofos said the two projects will attract more pedestrian traffic 'ewa and also to the makai side of Kalakaua as the Royal Hawaiian mall improves its sidewalks and storefronts that were largely uninviting.

Paul Kosasa, president of ubiquitous Waikiki sundries retailer ABC Stores, projects that pedestrian traffic at Lewers and Kalakaua will rev up after major new tenants fronting the intersection — a giant Quiksilver store at Waikiki Beach Walk and Senor Frog's and P.F. Chang's at the neighboring mall — open.

"Once those two corners get fixed up, then longer term I think there will be more and more pedestrian traffic moving 'ewa," he said.

PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC

Historically, Lewers has been on the periphery of pedestrian traffic up and down Kalakaua.

According to a 2005 University of Hawai'i study that measured peak evening pedestrian traffic on the mauka side of Kalakaua from Lewers to Uluniu Street, Lewers recorded the lightest traffic — about 600 people over 15 minutes, or about half as much as the most-traversed area between the International Market Place and Princess Kaiulani Hotel.

Another survey by local commercial real estate firm Colliers Monroe Friedlander in 2003 showed a similar dispersion of pedestrian traffic over 12 hours, with twice as much traffic fronting International Market Place compared with Lewers.

Mike Hamasu, research and consulting director for Colliers, said pedestrian concentrations in a resort will naturally gravitate to areas with popular new restaurants. "They'll definitely pull traffic," he said.

Karl Kim, a UH urban planning professor who helped produce the university's Waikiki walking study, expects higher pedestrian traffic to build around Lewers because Outrigger not only added new restaurants and shops but also demolished several tall buildings to transform the old canyonlike Lewers into a more open, inviting pedestrian promenade.

"The improvement in the aesthetics will also draw people," he said. "It's pleasant walking space."

Valerie Lamoureux, owner of the Cold Stone Creamery store on Kalakaua just 'ewa of Lewers, said she's already noticed more pedestrian traffic outside her store presumably because of Waikiki Beach Walk and its initial new restaurants, retailers, time-share and hotel towers.

"A lot of people are going down to check it out," she said. "It's definitely going to be good for the neighborhood."

Lamoureux, a 25-year Waikiki retail veteran who opened Cold Stone in 2001 next to her other business, skin-care boutique Waikiki Aloe that's been just 'ewa of Lewers since 1995, characterizes the shift in pedestrian activity as a stretching of the resort's commercial core as opposed to the heart of Waikiki moving 'ewa.

"In the old, old days, Waikiki ended at Lewers Street," she said. "People who go to the (International Market Place) now will go down Lewers as well."

Perhaps another indicator of this expectation for an expanded core is that several International Market Place tenants are adding a store at Waikiki Beach Walk, including Quiksilver, Coconut Willy's Bar & Grill, Maui Divers and Crazy Shirts.

Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, also believes the epicenter of pedestrian activity will expand rather than relocate. "You're seeing expanded foot traffic," he said.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

Since the city widened and improved Kalakaua sidewalks in the late 1980s, a host of improvement projects have influenced pedestrian concentrations, including several toward the diamondhead end of the street.

Among them were the beautification of Kuhio Beach, upgrading Hyatt Regency storefronts, Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort renovations, and additions to the ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel such as Tiki's Grill & Bar and Wolfgang Puck Express.

More toward the heart of Waikiki was the redevelopment of the old Waikiki III theater, which in recent months became a retail complex called Center of Waikiki with five tenants, California Pizza Kitchen, Rip Curl, Foot Locker, a Coco Cove sundries store and Atlantis Seafood & Steak.

As part of the Royal Hawaiian mall renovation, a garden grove of coconut trees and other plants is designed to be the mall's cultural centerpiece and public gathering place across from Seaside Avenue.

Tentative future redevelopment and renovation projects near the current heart of Waikiki also would affect any shift in the commercial core.

MORE TO COME

One conceptual plan involves redeveloping two wings of the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani hotel with 60,000 square feet of retail (two-thirds the size of Waikiki Beach Walk) and a 244-unit Westin time-share tower.

The plan by property owner Kyo-Ya Co. Ltd. also includes renovating the Princess Kaiulani's Ainahau Tower. No timetable has been set for the project.

Kyo-Ya, which owns other Sheraton hotels in Waikiki, also plans to replace the diamondhead wing of the Sheraton Moana Surfrider with a new hotel, and make major renovations to the Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton Waikiki.

The Queen Emma Foundation, owner of the International Market Place, has long planned to improve the 50-year-old bazaar. But a timetable also remains uncertain.

The foundation in 2003 announced a $100 million to $150 million plan to raze and rebuild the marketplace, but two years later said the plan would be scaled back because of financial concerns including construction costs and needs of The Queen's Medical Center, which the foundation helps support.

Whether those plans are realized or not, Noa of CB Richard Ellis, says "I think ground zero is there to stay," referring to the Lewers-Kalakaua area.

Noa cites the presence of Louis Vuitton on the mauka-diamondhead corner, and a host of more recent arrivals at or near the mauka-'ewa corner, including Max Mara, Oakley, Diesel, Puma and Chrome Hearts.

Other projects under construction that will bring people and attractions to the area include the $400 million hotel-condominium Trump International Hotel & Tower Waikiki Beach Walk just 'ewa of the makai end of Lewers, and Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa's restaurant opening next month at the Waikiki Parc Hotel off the opposing makai end of Lewers.

HELP FOR OTHER AREAS

Local development firm The Beall Corp. is involved in two retail projects in the area. One is a 6,000-square-foot retail complex to open in September at the corner of Saratoga Road and Kalakaua with a Kimo Bean Coffee Co. cafe, Sunglass Hut, Lucky Brand Jeans and Lucky Kids.

The other Beall project is a 30,000-square-foot restaurant-anchored retail complex expected to start construction this year at the site once home to Hula Hut and New Tokyo Restaurant just off Kalakaua on Saratoga.

Other retail and restaurant projects were built 'ewa of Lewers over the past decade, including Nike Town-anchored King Kalakaua Plaza, Local Motion and Tiffany-anchored 2100 Kalakaua — all of which are expected to receive new help drawing a critical mass of visitors beyond the old pedestrian core.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.