COMING SOON: PICKLES AT FORTE

Dec 24

Avalon Development VP Robby Kelley with the plans for the first phase of Forté

Fort Street Mall, Downtown Honolulu (DOHO)--

When I think of downtown, I think gritty. I think of crowds, homelessness, and zero parking. This is why I “never go to downtown” and why I got lost looking for a parking garage a few weeks ago.

Rewind even further back to a few months ago---I was at an event and saw Christine Camp, CEO of Avalon Development, speak. I learned that Avalon is currently in the midst of redeveloping downtown Honolulu...one block at a time. And it just so happens that their vision includes transforming the former downtown Walmart into a community space with pickleball courts.

It’s called Forté.

Recently, Christine Camp was named 2024 CEO of the year by Hawaii Business Magazine, and in the article about her, Camp explains that Forté is ”a social destination with pickleball courts, restaurants and shops where HPU students, downtown hotel guests, office workers and residents can congregate. Forté-- as in Fort Street, strong and loud.”

So I was thrilled when I serendipitously met Robby Kelley, Avalon’s Vice President, about a month ago.

We’ve been waiting for an indoor pickleball destination, like the ones on the mainland, and Avalon will be the first to open one in Hawaii. Pickles at Forté is scheduled to open to the public on January 20th (subject to change), with six pickleball courts and lounge areas. The courts can be reserved in advance and are also available for tournaments and events.

Kelley is the mastermind behind this project; both the visionary and the on-the-ground guy hammering out the fine details. We scheduled a time to chat, which was the reason I was in DOHO, at first getting lost, but then getting to see the Walmart space before its complete transformation.

Kelley revealed that the grand plan includes a multi-level space, with more pickleball courts upstairs and lounge-shop-eat-drink spots that offer views of Fort Street Mall. Caveat: development is fluid and things can change, but this is the vision for the space right now.

As far as the objections I’d held about DOHO, when I visited, the area surrounding Forté was clean and bright, and because the old Walmart has tons of parking, this won’t be an issue with Pickles at Forté.