Genki Sushi is coming to Prince Kuhio Plaza.
Mall manager Daniel Kea confirmed the sushi restaurant, which serves its dishes to customers on small conveyor belts, and Verizon Wireless will move into a new building that’s being constructed to replace the former Hilo Hattie location.
The businesses could open in two to four months, he said.
They’re not the only new stores being lined up.
A building permit application for renovations to the former Sports Authority location listed TJ Maxx and Petco as future tenants. Sports Authority closed last August.
But Kea said he couldn’t comment about that since no leases have been signed for that location, which could be home to three tenants.
“I can’t confirm or deny that we’re in talks with them,” he said.
Representatives of TJ Maxx, Petco and Genki Sushi didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday and Friday.
Kea said there is room for another tenant in the new 11,100-square-foot building. Demolition of the old building began in September after the closure of Hilo Hattie.
The new Genki Sushi location would be its first grand opening after last year’s hepatitis A outbreak.
Altogether, 292 people came down with the illness in what became the state’s largest hepatitis A outbreak. The state Department of Health ordered Genki Sushi to shut down its 10 restaurants on Oahu and one on Kauai on Aug. 15 after frozen scallops served raw were linked to the outbreak. The state cleared those restaurants to reopen about three weeks later.
Seventy-four people who contracted the disease during the outbreak required hospitalization.
The scallops were pulled off the market in August.
Genki Sushi has 13 locations in Hawaii, including one in Kailua-Kona.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
