A "new Honolulu landmark" is what a Japanese development partnership hopes to build between Ala Moana Beach Park and Kewalo Basin small boat harbor.

Tokyo-based Shindai Co. Ltd. and a partner doing business as Kewalo Waterfront Partners Inc. have floated conceptual design plans for a complex with small restaurants, a jazz bar, a shopping arcade, a wedding chapel and a 250-stall parking garage on land it hopes to lease from the state.

The companies have retained local consultants to engage community members in the project plans, which have attracted some early criticism.

Renderings of the complex made up of four futuristic-looking two-story buildings plus shaded rooftop observation decks were published in the April-May edition of a Japanese magazine called Act4. The magazine article described the project as "a new Honolulu landmark."

Kevin Cockett, a local public relations consultant working with Kewalo Waterfront Partners, said the renderings are being dramatically revised, in part based on feedback.

"The designs are being redone and will look nothing like the images in the Japanese publication," he said. "The architect that’s on this is redoing some of the design components especially regarding the wedding use."

Cockett added that an elevated walkway fronting the mauka end of the harbor is not part of the evolving plan.

Shindai, through its local affiliate Hinamari Hawaii Inc. and Japanese-based Good Luck International Corp. are seeking to lease 2.1 acres on the Diamond Head side of Kewalo Basin from the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency that owns the property and regulates development in Kakaako.

HCDA’s board voted in December to allow agency administrators to negotiate lease and development terms exclusively with the partnership for a limited time that expires in February.

At the time the lease request was disclosed by HCDA last year, some commercial fishermen and tour operators based at Kewalo Basin objected to the proposal over concerns that their businesses would be negatively affected.

"We’re totally against this project," Mike De Rego, a charter fishing boat operator, told the HCDA board at the December meeting where the board voted to proceed.

Some harbor business owners argued that maritime-related facilities — not restaurants and a wedding venue — should be developed around the basin.

Anthony Ching, HCDA’s executive director, responded that uses envisioned by the developer would bring new life to the harbor and potentially generate more business for charter boats.

On Wednesday, HCDA staff provided the board an update on negotiations in executive session closed to the public.

"The negotiations are still ongoing," Lindsey Doi, an agency spokeswoman, said Friday. "We haven’t approved anything."

If lease terms are tentatively agreed to by HCDA staff, a lease would be subject to board approval following a presentation by the partnership, two public hearings, an environmental assessment and community consultations.

The community consultations began about a couple of weeks ago, according to Cockett, who is also working with Guy Kaulukukui, a former deputy director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources who now heads consulting firm Kealapono LLC.

Ron Iwami, president of Friends of Kewalo, a group that fought against residential high-rise development in Kakaako makai, said the scale of the proposed complex crowds what little public park space exists along the harborfront.

"Kewalo Basin Park is like our little bit of country in the city, and once you bring in development you destroy that," he said. "We need open space — a place to breathe."

Wayne Takamine, chairman of a community advisory committee that helped draft a master plan for Kakaako makai before much of the area along and beyond the Ewa side of the harbor was given to the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said he’s not opposed to development on part of the site being negotiated for a lease. But he has concerns.

Much of the intended development site is a parking lot with about 70 stalls. The project also would cover an area that includes public bathrooms and park area with two picnic tables that Takamine said should not be developed.

Takamine said the scale of the plans also encroaches on sight lines from Ala Moana Beach Park. "That’s one of the reasons (the plan) doesn’t fly with us," he said.

Cockett said Kewalo Waterfront Partners is taking community feedback into consideration and will share updated renderings when they are available.