A giant warehouse in Iwilei that produced cardboard boxes for about 50 years is about to become more inviting to consumers as the home of a few new restaurants and retail stores, adding another piece to what has been a gradual upgrade of the historically industrial area.

The renewal plan for the former Weyerhaeuser box production plant at the corner of Nimitz Highway and Alakawa Street just makai of Home Depot is being driven by Thanh Lam, owner of the local Ba-Le bakery and sandwich shop chain.

Lam bought the two-story, 165,900-square-foot building in May with two partners for $20 million, and is aiming to complete renovations costing a few million dollars more by March or April.

Lam's main objective was to move his bakery operations, but he has leased 11,000 square feet of space in the building to party supply store Party City and 4,000 square feet to Boulevard Saimin. Other space is available. Lam also plans to establish a new restaurant/ bakery concept dubbed La Tour Bakehouse featuring baked goods, salads and sandwiches.

La Tour will be run by Lam's two sons, Trung, 28, and Brandon, 25, in partnership with Ba-Le pastry chef Rodney Weddle.

The restaurant, planned for about 80 seats and a take-out counter for bakery orders, is projected to open in June. Trung Lam said the goal is to slowly add more La Tour stores, perhaps with two additional locations in the next five years.

AREA IS CHANGING

If all goes well, the improvements to the old Weyerhaeuser building, including taking down the wall around the nearly 4-acre property, will be the latest in a string of retail additions to an area that used to be mostly a neighborhood of warehouses and storage tanks.

Earlier retail inhabitants of Iwilei include City Mill, Kmart, Sam Choy's Breakfast Lunch & Crab and a largely failed effort by former Dole Cannery owner Castle & Cooke to convert the former cannery building into a factory outlet mall, though a few retail tenants remain there along with Signature Theatres.

Home Depot opened in 1999, followed by Costco in 2002 and Best Buy in 2005. Lowe's bought the property on the diamondhead side of Weyerhaeuser in 2005, but delayed plans to open a store last year. Lowe's said it expects to begin preparing the site for construction next month.

More growth is anticipated nearby makai of Nimitz at the state's Commercial Fishing Village at Pier 38, where construction is under way on a Tsukiji Fish Market and Restaurant.

A BIG LEAP

Ba-Le's CEO had no long-held ambition to become part of this mix, but saw the Weyerhaeuser building as a big opportunity when forest products firm Weyerhaeuser Co. announced in March 2008 that it would close its Honolulu box facility and list the property for sale.

Lam said he needed to expand bakery operations, which occupy 25,000 square feet split between two buildings on Dillingham Boulevard across from O'ahu Community Correctional Center. But he figured 2010 would be an optimal time to buy property in a local real estate market undergoing a price correction.

The Weyerhaeuser property was attractive given its size and location, but at an estimated price between $17 million and $24 million, it was more than Lam could afford even with annual Ba-Le revenue at about $10 million and help from his family.

"I couldn't sleep for two nights," he said. "It was more than we could handle. I gave up."

But after some encouragement and help last December from Wallace Watanabe, the CEO of Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union, a plan came together for Lam to buy the building with a partner or two.

As it ended up, Lam paid $7.6 million for 51 percent of the building, essentially the diamondhead half of the property, while two partners, construction firm 57 Builders Ltd. and Island Flooring, bought the balance.

Arranging the financing was difficult, and the deal nearly fell apart. "It was not easy," said Lam, who faced losing $500,000 if he failed to complete the purchase. "This was a gamble — you know, all in."

Watanabe said he took a chance stretching the limits of the deal, but is betting on Lam because of his work ethic. "He just perseveres," Watanabe said.

GROWING COMPANY

A refugee from Vietnam, Lam moved to Hawai'i in 1984, opening a single sandwich shop that year with a partner.

Five months later, however, Lam was in the bakery business after being frustrated with having to pay retail prices and pick up rolls from multiple Saint Germain Bakery stores to satisfy big orders.

The Hawai'i office of the U.S. Small Business Administration named Lam young entrepreneur of the year on O'ahu in 1989, and in 2002 he was recognized as the SBA's national small business person of the year for his accomplishment growing the company.

The Hawai'i office of the SBA, in nominating Lam for the national award, said he demonstrated an almost intuitive sense of the marketplace plus phenomenal acumen and timing to expand Ba-Le during the stagnant economy of the 1990s. The nomination also cited Lam's willingness to try new ideas in areas where he had no experience.

"He is really an ultimate entrepreneur," said Jane Sawyer, public information officer of the SBA Hawai'i office.

Today, there are 21 Ba-Le restaurants, all but one of which are franchised. Customers of Ba-Le's bakery include numerous hotels, airlines, restaurants and retailers. Products include pizza dough for Papa John's, sliced bread for Whole Foods Market and pastries for Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Ba-Le also began supplying Foodland Super Market with French bread as of Dec. 1.

The company also has a line of packaged healthy foods, including sugar-free granola and whole-grain corn puffs. Presently, Ba-Le is experimenting with a formula for a granola-based cookie for local YMCA youth programs.