The owner of Waikiki Shopping Plaza said it plans to begin construction next month on a four-story addition to the retail complex at the corner of Kalakaua and Royal Hawaiian avenues.

The plan will add 29,655 square feet of restaurant and retail space to the roughly 30-year-old, eight-story complex housing about 50 tenants, including Tanaka of Tokyo and Waikiki Lau Yee Chai.

To make way for the addition, the mall owner will demolish four older, mostly commercial and office low-rise buildings.

The older buildings ranging from one to four stories were built on the corner of the block in 1950 and 1957, about 20 years before Waikiki Shopping Plaza was built on the rest of the block.

The new building, which will be connected with Waikiki Shopping Plaza, has been designed with a rooftop canopy and cantilevered sidewalk trellises.

Leighton Mau, president of Waikiki Shopping Plaza, said the project will provide much-needed jobs in the construction industry and long-term employment opportunities when work is finished in spring 2011.

The addition, which will rise 60 feet in an area with a 280-foot height limit, has received support from the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, and has completed a state environmental assessment.

"The project is intended to enhance the overall visual character and Hawaiian sense of place for the site," the developer, Waikiki Shopping Plaza LLC, said in the environmental assessment.