The local development partnership that owns King’s Village has pledged more than $1 million in community spending in exchange for permission from the city to build a condominium hotel tower that exceeds Waikiki’s height and density requirements.
Members of the partnership between BlackSand Capital LLC, Kobayashi Group and The MacNaughton Group told the Waikiki Neighborhood Board on Tuesday that they plan to construct a multilevel tower with heights ranging from the current 240-foot height limit to a soaring 350 feet. King’s Village, a retail complex in Waikiki designed to resemble Honolulu around 1900, along with Prince Edward Apartments and Hale Waikiki would be razed to make way for the project’s 256-unit condominium hotel, parking deck, retail and office center, and a small park.
The developers will be asking the City Council to allow the project even though it exceeds the height limit, setback restrictions and density limits for Waikiki. To make the project more attractive, the developers have agreed to contribute the following:
» $500,000 for Waikiki beach replenishment.
» $200,000 to the city for use in helping Waikiki’s homeless community.
» $200,000 to keep public bathrooms in Waikiki open after 10 p.m.
» $100,000 toward construction of Americans with Disabilities Act improvements for access and for a bathroom at Waikiki Community Center.
» Construction and maintenance of a "pocket park" on Prince Edward Street.
The King’s Village project has met with little community resistance so far.
Eleven of 12 Waikiki Neighborhood Board members present at the Tuesday meeting supported it.
"They asked the board and the Waikiki Improvement Association to help them come up with a list of community improvements and they’ve been working with people in buildings about their view planes," said Waikiki Neighborhood Board Chairman Bob Finley. "I can’t predict when someone will start yelling, but this was done with a whole lot more transparency than the PACREP 2121 and 2139 Kuhio project. I don’t see a lot of opposition coming."
Los Angeles-based PACREP LLC is building two luxury towers on Kuhio Avenue to be known as the Ritz-Carlton Waikiki Beach Residences. Many Waikiki residents opposed the towers, saying they violated Waikiki guidelines and destroyed views.
Waikiki Neighborhood Board Member Helen Carroll cast the lone dissenting vote on the King’s Village project, saying that limits need to be enforced in Waikiki, where she believes that building is out of control and density is growing too swiftly.
Carroll said the 45,622-square-foot King’s Village project site, which is bounded by Koa Avenue, Kaiulani Avenue and Prince Edward Street, already is surrounded by high-rise structures, including the Hyatt Regency Waikiki; a proposed Princess Kaiulani tower, the Ohana East; the Waikiki Skytower on Cleghorn; and the Pacific Monarch.
"There’s just too much building," Carroll said. "When Mayor (Frank) Fasi was in office, he had building restrictions in the Waikiki Special District, because he said, ‘We’re going to have an island that’s sinking.’"
Carroll also worries about the impact another big Waikiki construction project will have on tourists and neighboring residents, who are already grappling with noise, traffic congestion, and the loss of open space and views.
Her arguments mirrored those of the community earlier this year when a furor broke out in response to a proposal from PACREP LLCto add the second tower to its Ritz-Carlton Waikiki Beach Residences.
The project’s environmental assessment has yet to be filed with the city and the development still needs to go through a round of public hearings that are required of applicants seeking a Planned Development Resort Permit.
"We’ll file an environmental assessment later this month or next month," said Elton Wong, vice president of Kobayashi Group LLC. "Entitlements, design and permitting would take place over the next year and a half to two years with construction starting in 2016."
Keith Kurahashi, president of Kusao & Kurahashi Inc., told the board on behalf of his client BlackSand that "the applicant has been sensitive to certain private views from surrounding condominiums, although private views are not protected."
The tower’s stacked design helps retain much of the ocean views from the Governor Cleghorn Apartments and the Waikiki Skytower, he said. The developer further softened view impacts by situating the new tower in the profile of the west tower of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki, Kurahashi said. Ocean views from the Waikiki Townhouse and the Pacific Monarch will be minimally affected, he said. He also touted the project’s potential to bring needed jobs, taxes and hotel rooms to Waikiki.
"Waikiki will need to replace some of the hotel units that have been lost in recent years and units in existing hotels planned for closure," Kurahashi said.
Unite Here Local 5, which represents about 8,100 hotel workers in Hawaii, is against the project, which it says is representative of a "disturbing industry trend" that over the past decade was partially responsible for the loss of 8,000 hotel units statewide, including 5,000 units in Waikiki.
"We’re absolutely concerned that yet another developer is looking to develop another condo-hotel in Waikiki," said Paola Rodelas, Local 5’s communications specialist. "We know for a fact that condo-hotels don’t produce as many jobs and tax revenue for the city compared to traditional resort hotels, and that can’t be good for anyone. The needs of city taxpayers — not just the needs of developers — must be met."
This King’s Village project comes just as the union and its supporters are trying to advance Honolulu City Council Bill 16, which establishes permitting and notification requirements for hotel owners that want to convert rooms into condominiums or time shares.
"Our city can’t just keep on approving project after project without looking at the cumulative and comprehensive impact limited-service and condo-hotel developments will have on the city’s tax base and the long-term future of our tourism industry," Rodelas said. "We already have too few hotel rooms on Oahu to attract and host large meetings and conventions that could potentially bring in millions of dollars in additional revenue to our city."
Joe Toy, president and CEO of Hospitality Advisors LLC, said market conditions are driving most of Waikiki’s growth in condo-hotels.
"Given costs and barriers to entry in Waikiki, it’s hard for investors to get a big enough return on investment to warrant building full-service hotels," Toy said.
Developers are more likely to build new Oahu hotels in places like Laie and Kapolei that could support community-based, mid-priced development, he said.
"In this case, we’ve got a very nice project done by people that have roots here," Toy said. "They’re a good example of the local stewardship that in some respects we’ve lost a little bit of in Hawaii."
