A&B reaches out to Kailua community

Kailua residents are frustrated with increasing tourism, traffic congestion and crowds, and many are nostalgic for the past. As the primary landowner in Kailua’s business district, we share these concerns and are not surprised when residents look to us for help or for someone to blame.

We accept the responsibility that comes with owning the majority of the land beneath the stores, restaurants and offices that serve Kailua, but we can’t solve broad community problems by ourselves. Solutions to issues like traffic, tourism and homelessness require residents, government and businesses to collaborate, and A&B is willing to be an active part of that process.

I believe we’ve done many things right in our first four years in Kailua, but I acknowledge we haven’t done enough to engage with the Kailua community regarding our future plans for our properties there. We went to great lengths early on to engage key community stakeholders, and their input has helped guide our preliminary planning efforts. But we have not adequately circled back with the community to show how we are incorpor- ating that feedback, to seek reactions to our interpretation of the community’s priorities and to incorporate this feedback into our plans. We are committed to taking these steps before proceeding with any future plans.

We have started holding more meetings with members of the community and will soon begin other more comprehensive engagement efforts, including a resident survey, listening sessions with a wide range of community members, brainstorming meetings with key stakeholder groups, and increased participation in appropriate public forums.

We look forward to this engagement, and believe that as a community we share the same goal — responsible progress that keeps Kailua a special place for local residents. We expect there will be disagreements on some issues but hope that through rational and constructive engagement, we can find common ground on important issues.

I hope the community will take time to engage and understand our true intent and actions. Rumors of our intent have included driving out local tenants to make way for high-end retailers and planning to build residential condos. In reality, we have not introduced luxury brands, have increased the number and percentage of local tenants — currently 90 percent of all tenants — and have not proposed any residential development, nor do we have any plans to do so. I believe our intent is consistent with the wishes of the community, but defining the optimal path is not easy.

A&B wants to partner with Kailua and preserve the character of the town. It is easy for the community to assume the worst about our intent when we are not sufficiently engaged and communicating — explaining our actions while also asking for feedback from the community. Kailua’s future should be not be planned through social media, so we commit to better communication with residents and businesses and hope to have reasonable, constructive conversations with the community. Kailua is a special place in which A&B has invested for the long term. We want to be good stewards and neighbors. Working together with the community, we can ensure Kailua remains a special place.

Chris Benjamin is president and CEO of Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.