City Council urged to OK Ritz-Carlton project in Waikiki

Permitting for the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach is moving ahead again.

The city Department of Planning and Permitting recommended last week that the Honolulu City Council approve the developer’s request to complete its project. Plans are to construct two 350-foot, 39-story condo-hotel towers, connected by an eight-story podium, with 553 units.

Much of the project was underway before a glitch in the original building agreement forced the developer to pursue a planned development-resort permit. Oahu’s first Ritz-Carlton tower — a 307-unit condominium hotel on Kuhio Avenue — is nearly complete and has begun taking bookings for stays after July 1. The foundation for the second Ritz-Carlton tower next door is already poured, but its future won’t be certain until this latest permit goes through.

Los Angeles developer Pacrep LLC built the first tower under a joint development agreement with New York-based Metropole Realty Advisors, which owns the adjacent Luxury Row, a retail center that includes Tiffany & Co., Coach, Chanel and Gucci. But Pacrep 2 could not reach an agreement with Metropole for the second 246-unit tower. The change to a planned development-resort permit application in March put Pacrep’s earlier city approvals at risk.

The Ritz-Carlton project has been controversial from its start.

Advocates said the towers would gentrify a blighted portion of Kuhio Avenue, improving safety and providing needed hotel rooms and jobs. They touted the benefits of welcoming Oahu’s first Ritz-Carlton with luxury retail tenants, including the isles’ first Dean & DeLuca shop, an upscale grocer. Advocates said the project would add landscaped green space and vibrancy to what has been an underused section of Waikiki.

But the project’s staggering size and the direction of its buildings required unpopular exemptions to Waikiki guidelines that protect views and limit height and density.

By seeking a new permit, the developers created an opening for project opponents. Some opponents testified against the project during an April 25 public hearing, but their brief window to stop the project or demand changes is closing.

City Council Chairman Ernie Martin introduced a resolution Wednesday to approve Pacrep’s conceptual plan for the redevelopment of its 4.05 acre-Kuhio Avenue site. The resolution is on the action list for the city’s zoning committee, which will meet at 9 a.m. Thursday. Comments at the hearing will be limited to a minute. Written testimony may be faxed to 768-3827 for distribution at the meeting.

Pacrep officials did not return a call from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser seeking comment.

Waikiki Neighborhood Chairman Bob Finley said he’s disappointed by the city department’s decision to approve a project that his board didn’t favor. “Our board definitely did not want to see Tower 2 built. But since it already has the foundation poured, I’m not surprised that DPP felt that they should continue with it.”

Mark Harpenau, a resident of the Four Paddle condominium across the street from the development, said the city’s decision favored “weak arguments by the developer” while ignoring the wishes of the community, the Waikiki board and a design advisory committee. “The community was clearly wasting their time writing letters, going to neighborhood meetings and giving oral testimony at the DPP hearings,” Harpenau said.

After the zoning committee makes its recommendation, the measure moves to the City Council for action by Aug. 7. Harpenau said he hopes City Council members who vote on Pacrep’s latest application will consider community objections. If the Council decides in favor of the project, he wants it to negotiate community benefits. Harpenau said the developer should fund improvements like bus turnouts or bike lane signs along Kuhio Avenue.

Finley said Pacrep has been resistant to providing community benefits, but the board will continue to push it to do more.

“We’ve asked them on several occasions to put a stoplight on Kaiolu Street because they are increasing traffic to an area that is already dangerous,” Finley said. “They say they are putting grass and shrubbery on city property. But that’s for hotel guests, not the neighborhood.”

The company also needs to fix the “light pollution” from Tower 1 and ensure that similar land use violations don’t occur with Tower 2, said Bill Denison, owner of the W.E. Denison Corp., managing agent for the nearby association of apartment owners. “I certainly think it would be very important for the City Council to enforce their codes,” he said.

Finley agrees that Tower 1’s “brilliant stairway lights” need to be evaluated before the City Council allows the entire project to proceed. “People are having to buy heavier drapery to keep the lights out of their units,” he said. “They can’t sleep.”