Luxury market will open in Ritz tower

A Dean & DeLuca luxury food market where items include $1,000 tins of caviar and $35 cuts of filet mignon is to open its first store in Hawaii as part of the planned Ritz-Carlton Residences Waikiki Beach condominium-hotel where penthouses are priced at about $15 million.

The New York-based chain of gourmet markets, which sells a wide variety of goods from premium wines to high-end kitchenware, is a posh retail tenant for the 38-story tower projected to break ground later this year and open in early 2016.

The tower’s developer, PACREP LLC, said other amenities in the estimated $180 million project will include an "acclaimed" sushi restaurant, a restaurant and bar, two infinity-edge pools and a spa.

Like all 309 residence/hotel units in the tower, the pools and the restaurant and bar will have ocean views over Fort DeRussy.

Jason Grosfeld, a principal of Los Angeles-based PACREP, shared the new details of the project Wednesday at a ceremonial opening of a sales showroom created in a long-vacant space between Yves Saint Laurent and Coach stores at the 2100 Kalakaua "Luxury Row" retail complex makai of the Ritz tower site at 2121 Kuhio Ave.

Grosfeld said Dean & DeLuca fits nicely with Ritz and the neighboring retailers that also include Tiffany & Co., Gucci and Chanel.

"We think it’s the perfect brand to bring to Luxury Row and to bring to Ritz-Carlton," he said. "We couldn’t imagine a better gourmet food experience for our visitors and guests."

Dean & DeLuca was established in 1977 in the SoHo district of New York by cheese merchant Giorgio DeLuca and two business partners, Joel Dean and Jack Ceglic. The Kansas-based Leslie Rudd Investment Co. bought the retailer in 1996 and has enlarged the chain to 25 locations, including 14 in Japan.

Geoffrey Upham, managing director of Dean & DeLuca’s international division, said in a statement that the company is thrilled to establish its first Hawaii store, and that further expansion in the state is envisioned.

"We’re looking forward to being in the heart of this world-renowned community with its rich culture and food scene, and becoming a go-to destination for visitors and neighborhood shoppers," he said.

Grosfeld said construction on the tower is expected to start in late summer or early fall. He said an "overwhelming majority" of the units have already been reserved for buyers. Most units range from studios to three-bedroom units and prices start in the $500,000s.

The tower design was conditionally granted a special district permit by the city Department of Planning and Permitting last month after a contentious public hearing where some Waikiki residents — mostly owners of neighboring condominiums where prime ocean views would be blocked by the new tower — argued that the tower’s orientation violates Waikiki Special District design guidelines.

Those design guidelines say a building’s long axis "should" run perpendicular to the mountains and shoreline to preserve mauka views and natural ventilation.

The Planning Department ruled that the guidelines are not mandates, and approved the tower’s orientation with its long axis parallel to the ocean.

The department did attach conditions for including more ground-floor commercial space and design elements that evoke more of a "Hawaiian sense of place." PACREP also is required to "consider graduated, stepped forms, and/or other appropriate architecture features and design elements to soften the appearance of the tower and reduce its apparent mass, particularly as viewed from Kalakaua and Kuhio Avenues."

Four area residents appealed the case to the Zoning Board of Appeals last week.

The appeal claims that the Planning Department’s director made "arbitrary and capricious" interpretations of the city’s land use ordinance, and incorrectly ruled that Waikiki Special District design guidelines are not mandates.

The appellants said they reviewed department decisions for the Trump International Hotel Waikiki Beach Walk condo-hotel tower and the Allure Waikiki condo tower where the special district permits say the long axis of the towers should be orientated in a mauka-makai direction. Those two towers adhere to the guideline, according to the appellants.

Appellants also claim that the condition for the Ritz tower to "consider" a design that steps back as the tower rises is a meaningless condition because it doesn’t require such a design.

Grosfeld said the appeal won’t affect plans to break ground later this year. A hearing date has yet to be determined for the appeal.