SALT LAKE — Target Corp. yesterday said it plans to open a 135,000-square-foot store at the former Costco site at Bougainville Industrial Park in March 2009.

The nation's second-largest discount retailer is looking at starting "extensive renovations" on the building in the first half of 2008, said Brie Heath, Target's manager of media relations. The Minneapolis-based chain also plans to open a 160,000-square-foot store at Kapolei Commons in March 2009.

Target plans to hire 200 to 250 employees for each store. The company has begun hiring an executive team to manage the stores and will conduct a "mass hire" for the rest of the employees at least three to four months before opening, Heath said.

Target development manager Eric Padget, speaking at a meeting of the Aliamanu/Salt Lake/ Foster Village Neighborhood Board last night, said the company plans to hire locally and wants to work with the community.

He said the company is working on a traffic study for the Salt Lake site. He also said the company recognizes that parking is a big issue in Hawai'i and is looking at building a parking structure at the site.

The Salt Lake store, like the Kapolei location, will carry some grocery items but will not have a full grocery — it won't have produce, a deli or a meat department — like some SuperTarget stores on the Mainland, Heath said.

Target had been studying the Salt Lake site for at least a year. The company recently assumed a lease for part of the nearly 10-acre property from Kamehameha Schools valued at $22 million, and bought another piece from Hawai'i real estate development firm The MacNaughton Group for $6.4 million, according to property records.

The MacNaughton Group developed the site for Costco, which opened its first Hawai'i store there in 1988. Costco closed the Salt Lake location in 2002 when it opened a bigger store in Iwilei, and since then the Bougainville site has been mostly unused.

The Costco site "really met all of our requirements in terms of demographics (and) ... there's opportunity for a lot of growth in that area," Heath said. "It was just a great site."

The Aliamanu/Salt Lake/Foster Village Neighborhood Board voted 8-0 to support a Target store in the area.

"We will welcome Target as a neighbor and hope that they'll be a good neighbor and an asset to our community," said board chairman Len Pepper.

Still, there were questions about the impact on other businesses in Bougainville Industrial Park, at least some of which have become Target's tenants.

There are several businesses in the industrial park, including One Fas Lube, Cheerleaders Sports Bar and Grill, a Papa John's Pizza and an engraving shop. At least one space appears to be vacant.

Donna McLaughlin, president of One Fas Lube, last night asked Padget why Target hasn't contacted the Bougainville tenants.

"While I'm happy that you have agreed to speak before the community and the neighborhood board, why haven't we received any communication, because we are directly affected by you moving here," she said.

Padget said tenants should receive a letter from Target by the end of the month and that the company plans to work with them to ensure a "smooth transition" during construction and for the longer term thereafter.

"Our goal is to work with the existing businesses to make sure that not only during construction we do the right thing for your business, but the longer term viability of the site," he said. "Whether it's helping upgrade the property or whether you'd like to relocate ... we will be working with you."

The Kapolei Commons project, across Kalaeloa Boulevard from Home Depot, will be developed by The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group on 54 acres. The Target store will make up less than a quarter of the shopping complex.

Target is "consistently looking" at prospects for other stores in Hawai'i, but has no firm plans other than the Salt Lake and Kapolei locations, Heath said.

"We don't have anything specific after these first two stores at this time, but we're going to keep looking and constantly re-evaluating how much can be sustained, not just on this island but other islands that we may be looking at," she said.

Hawai'i, Alaska and Vermont are the only states without a Target store. The company, which operates 1,502 stores across the Mainland, plans to open a store in Alaska next year.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.