Choices for well-heeled vacationers staying in Waikiki are about to increase as a new luxury hotel tower prepares to open with nightly rates as high as $3,300.
The Ritz-Carlton Residences Waikiki Beach announced Thursday that it has begun accepting reservations for a June 1 opening.
Ritz Waikiki is being built on Kuhio Avenue as a 307-unit residential condominium with resort amenities, and units were sold for $500,000 to $15 million to individual buyers who can rent out units as visitor accommodations managed by hotel operator Ritz-Carlton, which expects to employ about 200 people on the property.
The project’s developer, an affiliate of Los Angeles-based development firm Irongate, expects that at least 265 units will be available in the rental pool.
Joseph Toy, principal of local hotel industry consulting firm Hospitality Advisors LLC, said the Ritz Waikiki project is part of a luxury residential resort condo market that is expanding in Hawaii in response to demand.
“It’s a fairly deep market and growing,” he said. “We’re seeing some pretty impressive room rates.”
Irongate said the tower — positioned relatively far from the beach but with ocean views over the 20-acre Fort DeRussy military reservation and park — creates a “new horizon of luxury” in Waikiki.
“This new residential resort is the latest addition to the Waikiki skyline, featuring the ultimate in resort-style living with expansive ocean views from every residence, global culinary experiences, exceptional amenities and legendary service,” the company said in a statement.
Nightly rates range from $599 for a 463-square-foot studio to $3,299 for a 1,880-square-foot, three-bedroom unit.
Amenities include an infinity pool with private cabanas, a spa, two restaurants and a gourmet grocer.
The first restaurant, BLT Market, will open in June and also handle in-room and poolside food service. The other restaurant, Sushi Sho, is slated to open between July and August along with the grocer, Dean & DeLuca.
Though the nightly room rates are far above the roughly $225 average for Waikiki, prices at the Ritz Waikiki don’t top other ritzy properties. At the Trump International Hotel Waikiki Beach Walk, which Irongate also developed as a condo-hotel, there are penthouses that rent for $3,600 and $3,800 a night. Rates at the oceanfront Halekulani range from $495 to $8,000.
Irongate intends to connect the Ritz Waikiki with a second tower that is in the early stages of construction with 246 units.
Both tower projects have drawn considerable community opposition largely because the broads side of the towers run parallel to the ocean and block more ocean views of other high-rise condos farther mauka. But city regulators said the tower orientations conform with Waikiki Special Design District rules. The City Council also allowed the towers to rise 350 feet, or 50 feet higher than the standard height limit for the site, under a rule allowing the bonus if certain conditions are met.
