Health care tenants air concerns to City Council

Tenants of the Ala Moana Building fear that possible plans for the iconic office high-rise may leave longtime medical professionals and their patients scrambling for new locations.

While General Growth Properties has made no announcements about its future plans, no tenant has been allowed a lease beyond 2020 at the landmark tower that was once home to the signature La Ronde revolving restaurant at Kapiolani Boulevard and Keeaumoku Street.

In addition to a major overhaul of the Ewa wing of Ala Moana Center, General Growth has built or is planning to build several condominiums along the mauka and makai sides of the property.

“GGP has no current plans beyond completing the Ala Moana Center Ewa wing expansion and the development of Park Lane Ala Moana,” Ala Moana General Manager Francis Cofran told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

But speculation about more condominiums or a second Ala Moana Hotel somewhere on the property prompted Ala Moana Building tenants to appeal to members of the Honolulu City Council last week.

The Council Zoning Committee on Thursday approved a resolution calling on the Caldwell administration to initiate a bill that would insert language into the land use ordinance making “the preservation of health care services a priority” in transit-oriented development plans being crafted in advance of the city’s $6 billion rail project.

Three dentists with offices in the 23-story tower made their case to committee members, saying the building houses the greatest number of dental offices in the state. More than a dozen other medical care providers or their patients submitted letters supporting the resolution.

Dr. Dean Sueda, a pediatric dentist, said the Ala Moana Building is an ideal location because it’s halfway between downtown and Waikiki. It’s also along a major bus hub, making it easy for patients from Waianae to Kahuku to come in for appointments, he said.

“With the rail, I think that would really help out a lot,” Sueda said, but only if he and other medical practitioners are allowed to stay. He estimated there are 80 medical offices that now call the building home.

If it were torn down to make way for other types of development, it would negatively affect the community, he added.

Dr. Edmund Cassella, a periodontist, said when he first moved into the building in 1994, he was the only dentist on the 15th floor. Today, the floor is home to five dental offices and three other medical services, he said.

The building is basically a dental center, Cassella said. If it were to be torn down for a hotel, condominium or other purpose, the dentists would be hard-pressed to find office space elsewhere. “Buildings don’t want us because of the water issues, because of the plumbing we need to have, because of the parking that it takes.”

Cassella said that at his age, he’d probably close his practice rather than relocate because it would take years to recoup the cost of moving.

“I know it’s private, but somewhere, somehow, somebody in the government needs to say, ‘You can’t do that to our population, you can’t do that to the people here,’” Cassella said.

George Atta, the city’s planning director, said short of expressing a preference in the land use ordinance for medical care facilities in transit-oriented development areas, there is little the city can do to stop a property owner from developing what is allowed by zoning.

“We recognize that these kinds of services are part of the entire ‘live, work, play’ package that (transit-oriented development) is trying to enhance in the urban environment,” Atta said, but added that what General Growth decides to do with the Ala Moana Building is “really a tenant-lessee kind of thing.”

Inserting language into the land use ordinance “makes a policy statement” that the city believes health care facilities are important to have in transit-oriented development zones, he said. The city, however, cannot force private landowners to place or keep health care facilities in those zones, he said.

The resolution was introduced by City Council members Ann Kobayashi and Trevor Ozawa.

“I do hope that General Growth will see the advantage of having that building remain the way it is,” Kobayashi said.

The resolution now goes to the full Council for a final vote.