A convenience store, 102 metered parking stalls and an events pavilion with surfboard lockers will be added around the state’s commercial small boat harbor in Kakaako under a private development proposal that a state board tentatively approved Wednesday.

The board of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency that owns the 143-slip Kewalo Basin, selected the modest additions proposed by Howard Hughes Corp. over a competing developer’s bid for a more intensive commercial project that included retail, restaurants, a farmers market, space for live music and weddings, and a 250-stall parking garage.

Both plans were proffered in response to a request for plans that HCDA issued in March aimed at adding “waterfront commercial space” that creates more of a gathering place around the harbor, with a “priority placed on open space and harbor/shoreline activities” on three separate parcels totaling about 3.5 acres.

But a new slate of board members installed after the request was issued didn’t embrace this goal.

“This was not our board’s RFP (request for proposals),” board member Mary Pat Waterhouse said at the Wednesday meeting that lasted about four hours. “Our vision for that area is different from the vision reflected in the original RFP.”

The board had asked both developers to reduce the intensity of commercial use in initial plans that they shared at a nonpublic presentation in August.

Hughes Corp., which already manages Kewalo Basin slips for HCDA and is developing 60 acres it owns mauka of the harbor into the Ward Village community with up to 22 condominium towers and more than 1 million square feet of retail, initially proposed a collection of one- to three-story buildings with an urban fishing village theme and retail and restaurant uses along with expanded park space.

The company’s revised plan included turning a vacant 3,000-square-foot building on Ala Moana Boulevard into a convenience store with outdoor seating, sprucing up restrooms, and adding picnic tables and barbecue grills to a 2.1-acre site on the Diamond Head side of the harbor, and converting a warehouse next to Kewalo Waterfront Park into an event space with surfboard lockers, 102 paid parking stalls and space for lifeguard operations at a cost of $6 million.

Competing developer Kewalo Waterfront Partners made few changes to its original plan with 72,000 square feet of commercial space in three-story buildings, and suggested its plan was better because it would generate more revenue for the state, create more jobs and add more vitality to the harbor. This plan also was restricted to the 2.1-acre site and would have made the other properties into green space.

Shaun Mukai, a local attorney representing the Kewalo Waterfront firm backed by a Japan-based wedding operator, said the partnership’s $50 million plan would create 800 jobs and provide HCDA with $2 million a year in land lease rent that would exceed $100 million over 30 years.

Kewalo Waterfront’s proposal drew support mainly from small business owners and entrepreneurs working to be part of the project.

“You need to look at what the state needs,” Dean Okimoto, owner of Nalo Farms, said to the board. “Generating more income from that area will help you to maintain that area.”

For Hughes Corp., much of its support came from surfers who use the park and boat operators at the harbor who said the company met with them and addressed their concerns about dense development impinging on their activities.

“It doesn’t need to be about money,” said Emilie Bierly, a Kakaako resident who surfs at the break known as Kewalos. “I think it’s important to keep Kewalos Kewalos.”

HCDA board member Steve Scott said Kewalo Waterfront didn’t appear to be receptive to the board’s suggestion to scale back. “You doubled down and made no changes,” he told company representatives.

Board Chairman John Whalen suggested that the Kewalo Waterfront plan is more appropriate for the Ewa side of the harbor, where the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs owns much of the land fronting the harbor and is formulating a development master plan.

Some board members disagreed over what was best for the three HCDA sites, which the board voted on individually.

In a 7-1 vote, the board approved no plan for the 2.1 acres that include bathrooms, 94 metered parking stalls and a grassy area where Hughes Corp. proposed largely cosmetic improvements.

This decision, however, wasn’t a big loss for Hughes Corp. because HCDA already retains the company to manage and maintain this site, including parking revenue collection.

The vote to select the Hughes Corp. plan for the building on Ala Moana Boulevard was 6-2. And the board voted 5-3 to approve the company’s plan for the warehouse and parking area next to Kewalo Waterfront Park.

Hughes Corp. and HCDA declined to specify how much revenue the state would earn under the approved plan, but it is not expected to be significant.

Todd Apo, vice president of community development for Hughes Corp., said the company looks forward to making the improvements that enhance the harbor for boaters and the public.

Implementing the plan is subject to negotiating a lease with HCDA that would still have to be approved by the board.