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BOH moves 48 employees from Kapolei to Honolulu: Retains BSC

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Created on Wednesday, 22 December 2010 17:45

Bank of Hawaii recently moved 48 employees from its consumer lending division in Kapolei back to its downtown Honolulu headquarters.

The division’s 48 employees now work out of a newly renovated 19th floor at 130 Merchant St. Other groups that were located on that floor were moved to “pockets” within the bank building, said Peter Ho, the bank’s chairman, president and CEO.

The move was part of an effort to improve efficiency at the bank, Ho said.

“We have spots throughout the building where we have extra capacity,” he said. “It’s really like a jigsaw [puzzle] — how do we create the most efficiencies?”

Bank of Hawaii currently has three main corporate facilities. In addition to the downtown headquarters, the company owns a leasehold building at 949 Kamokila Blvd. in Kapolei, and its operations center at 909 Dillingham Blvd.

“We’ve begun the process of trying to become more efficient in our facilities,” Ho said. “[We’re doing] a lot of work to improve 130 Merchant St. both from an efficiency standpoint as well from an amenity standpoint.”

The bank began demolition last week on the previously vacant 16,000-square-foot fifth floor, which will be renovated into a learning and training center, as well as an employee lounge and fitness center. A staircase will also be added to connect the fifth floor with the sixth floor, which is where the employee cafeteria and executive dining room are located, he said.

The new learning facility, which will include multimedia classrooms, will increase the bank’s training capacity by 35 percent, Ho said.

“Training and development are really important elements of maintaining a fresh and meaningful employee base,” he said. “Over the years we’ve gotten a little cramped on training and development space.”

Moving the 48 employees to downtown frees up some 41,000 square feet for lease at the bank’s four-story Kapolei building, which still houses Bank of Hawaii’s call center.

The bank has hired Bishop Street Commercial to market the space to prospective tenants. Current tenants in the building include the Hawaii Medical Service Association, Grace Pacific and TD Food Group.