Yokota Exchange’s $4.7 Million Facelift Brings One-Stop Shopping to Customers
YOKOTA AB, Japan - From left, Col. Kenneth Moss, 374th Airlift Wing commander; Col. John Winkler, 374th Mission Support Group commander; Shinobu Matsui, Exchange general manager; Latoya Harris, main store manager; and Col. Scott Maskery, Exchange Pacific Region commander, cut the ribbon June 1 on the renovated Yokota Exchange.
The Exchange has turned the Yokota Community Center into a one-stop shopping destination with the grand opening of its new and improved main store.
Col. Kenneth Moss, 374th Airlift Wing commander, and Col. John Winkler, 374th Mission Support Group commander, helped Col. Scott Maskery, Exchange Pacific Region commander, cut the ribbon June 1 on the $4.7 million renovated store.
The update brings merchandise previously available at the Yokota BXtra, including furniture, pet supplies, sporting goods, toys, gardening supplies and more, to the main Exchange—a total of 22,500 square feet in new sales floor space.
New layout, flooring, graphics, fixtures and Pizza Hut
The store also boasts a modern look, with an improved store layout, new flooring, paint finishes, graphics and fixtures. Food court and mall concessions have moved to the first floor, and the Pizza Hut previously located at the BXtra has moved to the main store food court.
"Using existing space has proved far more cost-effective for both the installation and Exchange compared to investing in new construction.”
-Col. Scott Maskery, Exchange Pacific Region commander
The BXtra had been located across a busy highway from the Yokota Community Center. Its consolidation into the main store makes shopping at Yokota more convenient than ever, Maskery said.
“With the Exchange, BXtra, commissary and several name-brand restaurants under one roof, service members and families can get all of their shopping and dining needs met with one trip,” Maskery said. “Additionally, using existing space has proved far more cost-effective for both the installation and Exchange compared to investing in new construction.”
A LOOK BACK IN TIME - The Yokota AB main store, 1986. Click on the picture to go to the Exchange history Flickr album to see more stores of bygone eras.
Installation contributed $2.5 million
The Exchange moved out of the old BXtra building because the 374th Airlift Wing needed the additional space for equipment storage. As a result, the installation funded $2.5 million of the project, with the remainder paid for by Exchange earnings. Work started on the upgrade in November 2016, with the main store portion taking more than a year to complete.
Built in 2001, the Yokota Community Center was last renovated in 2011. More than 200,000 square feet of the building house Exchange operations, including the main store, Military Clothing store, barber shop, beauty salon, food court and mall.
In 2017, the Exchange contributed $507,868 in dividends to Yokota AB's Quality-of-Life programs.
