The remaking of Kapiolani Boulevard

Changes — big, tall changes, as well as some closer to the ground — are coming to the development zone surrounding Kapiolani Boulevard. The neighbors feel OK with it, by and large, with anticipated disruption during construction the chief concern.

“I think our board has generally been in support of transforming the area,” said Ryan Tam, chairman of the Ala Moana/Kakaako Neighborhood Board. “Changing the uses from strip clubs and bars to more commercial is an improvement.”

The remaking of this corridor is fueled largely by the plans for the main terminus of the Honolulu rail system at Ala Moana Center: The transit-oriented development (TOD) zone surrounds that point, which is why there are maps and artist’s renderings showing high-rises sprouting throughout the corridor.

Full disclosure from Tam: He works for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, the agency overseeing the rail project. But he’s right about a general acceptance that what planners call “urban infill” is on the way.

“I am not for overdevelopment — I’m for smart development,” said William Ammons, whose subdistrict is in that area. “We have enjoyed the lower density for years, but how we have moved into a different era.”

Still, it’s hard to be sure about the full effect of several new towers on the residential and business community at large. Special rules will apply to projects within the TOD zone along the route, awarding incentives to builders in return for the delivery of affordable housing in tandem with the market- or luxury-priced condos.

Housing advocates have raised concerns that not enough gains will be made toward erasing the shortage of affordable housing. For starters, the city may not get the full complement of affordable units officials envisioned initially.

Kevin Carney is vice president of EAH Housing, the nonprofit developer of affordable housing, working in association with Salem Partners. Salem is delivering 78 senior rentals at the site of Heald College, Carney said, even though it’s not bound by the TOD ordinance. The only units counted to calculate the affordable units that are owed are the penthouses at the top, he said.

“They’re building 400-plus condo-hotel units with three straight condo units,” he said. “So that’s why their affordable housing requirement is very, very small, because condo-hotels are not subject to the affordable requirement.”

Salem is going ahead with the senior rentals regardless, Carney said. But other developers may not be so inclined, which is why the final outcome of redevelop- ment remains uncertain.

There are also concerns that the proliferation of condotels will oversaturate the visitor market and siphon business from Waikiki. That’s been raised by the Waikiki Improvement Association, said its president, Rick Egged.

In July, the association adopted a position paper on the Ala Moana Neighborhood TOD plan, urging the city to encourage residential housing, first and foremost.

“Attention should be focused on the areas of greatest need to provide for an integrated community not just within Ala Moana and its neighbor Waikiki, but Honolulu overall,” the association said in its formal statement. “In particular, affordable rentals and affordable home ownership are in short supply in today’s market.”

Christine Camp is less worried about the prospect of oversupplying rooms. The chief executive officer of Avalon Group is in the preliminary phase of her company’s own addition to the development mix, following the purchase of three parcels, now occupied by the 1950s-vintage Kenrock Buildings.

On the 1-acre site will go a high-rise tower, but it’s still uncertain how the new inventory will be divided among the categories, Camp said: affordable rentals, market-priced condominiums and hotel units. The goal was originally just residential, she said, but the hotel element was needed for added revenue.

“We can’t do it just by the project alone, because it won’t pencil,” she said. “We lose money because the rent’s where it is. It won’t generate any income, so to construct it you have to make sure that there’s going to be some level of luxury.

“I didn’t want to sell luxury condos, so we’re looking at selling hotel units, above us,” Camp added. “And then that will subsidize the project to make it more manageable.”

Plans on the exact mix of units is ongoing, but the general concept is for somewhere in the 600-800 unit range for the entire project, with the preference for the higher density to keep the unit prices down, she said. That total would break down to about 100 rentals and 400-500 market condos, with the balance being hotel rooms.

But Camp doesn’t see this as vying with Waikiki.

“You can never compete with Waikiki, where you have the ocean, you have the infrastructure for people who are visiting,” she said. “And Waikiki will always have that. Kapiolani won’t have that. It’s never going to be an extension of Waikiki.

“I see this as more of an urban, longer-stay kind of hotel, possibly people coming to do business … or repeat,” Camp said. “They come here a couple times a year, or they come every year and they know what to expect. That would be the concept we would be looking at.”

Avalon had hoped to go out to the community to present plans in October, but the city’s affordable housing requirements are still in flux, with Bills 17-58 and 17-59 still in Council committee.

Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who chairs the City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee, said the legislation seeks to raise the percentage of units that would be required to reserve as affordable housing. The feedback from developers, she said, has been one of loud protest, assertions that “some of the restrictions would kill all of their projects.”

Pine said she is meeting with developers to hash out some kind of compromise, adding that she expects by the end of the year to have preliminary amendment language and present it to the Council.

She added that she does worry about “hotel creep” out of Waikiki, adding that the rules and regulations governing redevelopment of Waikiki hotels is making new inventory on the outskirts look more attractive. So another goal would be reviewing those Waikiki regulations, she said.

Pine said the drive is for greater setbacks from the street and commercial activity along widened sidewalks and plazas to enliven the district. Some in the business sector feel less than certain that will play out as hoped; Camp voiced some concern about finding enough retail tenants to make a go of it.

And then there are the other visual aspects of change. Ann Kobayashi is the Kapiolani district’s representative on the Council. The greatest physical alteration in the Ala Moana area will be the elevated rail, she said, especially if and when it is extended to the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The guideway is certain to follow Kapiolani down to University Avenue, she said.

“It’s probably going to look dark,” she said, with some chagrin. “And are we going to lose all those trees?”

But the principal issue in redevelopment, she added, remains whether the city will capture the affordable housing it needs within all the high-rise towers. Kobayashi said that’s where her focus will be: to insist that it will, lest Honolulu becomes a city catering only to the wealthy.

“All the ritzy stuff should stay in Kakaako: We need to have ordinary people able to live in town,” she said.

“That’s what Kakaako was supposed to be about. It didn’t turn out as I imagined, so maybe it’s Kapiolani that will.”