Best Hospitality LLC has plans to build a 350-foot-tall condo hotel tower on the long-empty Kyo-ya Restaurant site, but to move forward the developer will have to get the City Council’s permission to exceed a 25-foot height limit.

The subsidiary of Tokyo-based Tsukada Global Holdings met with community opposition Tuesday night when it presented preliminary plans to the Waikiki Neighborhood Board. Bob Finley, chairman of the Waikiki board, said members unanimously opposed the project with a vote of 15-0.

“Our feeling was they bought the property knowing that the height restriction was 25 feet. They’re asking for 325 feet more — that’s a lot,” Finley said. “If we support their request, it sets a dangerous precedent. We might as well take the zoning map and shred it because every single developer out there is going to want that same amount.”

Finley said Waikiki Special District guidelines require that the developer present the project to the board. The project may advance without board approval, but Finley said he hopes the city is attentive to concerns.

“Residents are fed up with variances,” he said. “They feel that projects should comply with the rules. Nobody supported this project — not even the union folks.”

The developer’s representative, Keith Kurahashi, argues that the project’s height fits the site’s resort commercial precinct zoning and its location, which is adjacent to the 160-foot-tall Luana Waikiki Hotel and near the 350-foot-tall Ritz-Carlton Waikiki Beach Residences, which are under construction.

“They don’t have to change the zoning. It’s a resolution process through the City Council since the tower won’t block the existing view of Diamond Head or the horizon line from the Punchbowl lookout,” Kurahashi said, adding that the project would create jobs, expand Waikiki’s hotel capacity and revitalize a site that has been dormant since Kyo-ya Restaurant ended a near 50-year run in 2005.

Kurahashi said his clients bought 2055 and 2057 Kalakaua Ave. for $30.5 million in August from local developer Kevin Showe. He said they envision a tower, called One Waikiki, that would have about 172 individually owned condo hotel units. Kurahashi said the units, which could be placed by owners in a hotel rental pool, would range in size from 450-square-foot studios to 1,000-square-foot penthouses.

“It will add to the hotel stock in Waikiki,” he said. “Based on other condo hotel projects in Waikiki, we expect that 80 to 85 percent of the units will be used as hotel rooms.”

Kurahashi said the developer is working on a draft environmental assessment. Once the assessment is completed, he said the developer will submit its Waikiki Special District application and seek a height variance, which must be vetted by the city Department of Planning and Permitting and approved by the Honolulu City Council.

“The developer needs the height to make this project cost-effective,” Kurahashi said.

Kurahashi’s clients hope to start construction in early 2018 with completion slated for 2019. Plans also call for a cafe on the ground floor, a restaurant on the second floor and a rooftop event space that could accommodate weddings, he said.

Best Hospitality told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an email that it is engaging in dialogue with residents and businesses in Waikiki, as well as the larger community, to provide additional information about the project and to address any questions or comments about the proposed development and how it can support the community.

The company said the project is the next step in its more than 15-year commitment to Hawaii as a member of the local business community operating wedding chapels at Hilton Hawaiian Village and Ko Olina Resort.

“To ensure the development of a premier property, Best Hospitality has retained the renowned architectural firm WATG, recognized for its award-winning resorts both locally and around the world,” the company said in an emailed statement. “The planned project will generate substantial economic benefits to Waikiki, including increased property values and significant tax revenue for the city and the state, as well as creating hundreds of construction jobs and permanent positions in hotel operations.”

But Finley said the board agreed with some 30 residents who objected to construction of yet another soaring tower in Waikiki, where tower height limits are set to protect views and typically range from 160 to 300 feet. If approved, this project would become the seventh tower of substantial size in the serious planning or construction phases, and another could be in the works once Irongate, developer of the Ritz-Carlton Residences Waikiki, finishes vetting its Saratoga Road site.

“It looks like something you’d see in Dubai,” said Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Jeff Apaka.

Waikiki resident David Moskowitz said such a variance would be out of place at the site, which is at the gateway of Waikiki and overlooks Fort DeRussy Beach Park.

“It’s an insane request. What are they smoking?” Moskowitz said. “An approval would change the whole look of a park that I remember back to my childhood days. When is enough enough?”