Transit boom claims another site

A wave of high-rise development plans on or near Kapiolani Boulevard close to one end of the city’s envisioned rail line just got bigger with a local developer’s purchase Wednesday of three two-story commercial buildings in the area.

Avalon Group bought the 1-acre property at 1400 Kapiolani Blvd. makai of Walmart with intentions to redevelop the site with a tower containing market-priced condominiums, affordable rental apartments and limited-service hotel rooms.

Christine Camp, Avalon president and CEO, said more specific details of the anticipated tower have not been worked out yet. But the project, she added, will seek to qualify to be bigger than permitted under standard zoning rules because the site is within the city’s zone for transit-oriented-development near the rail station planned at Ala Moana Center.

Camp said she hopes to start redevelopment work within three years, and said that much work needs to be done, including obtaining financing for what could be a roughly $200 million tower.

“Obviously trying to fit it all will require a lot of thought,” she said. “But we are up to the challenge.”

If Avalon’s plan is realized, it could be among at least eight towers — including four with hotel uses — rising a short walk from the planned Ala Moana rail station.

Seven other tower projects in the area have been disclosed by developers. The first one recently began construction — a condo called Kapiolani Residence, mauka of the Ala Moana Hotel.

None of the others has begun to rise. They are the Hawaii Ocean Plaza hotel and condo just Ewa of the Avalon site; a hotel and condo next to Walgreens fronting Kapiolani; a condo mauka of Walgreens; a condo called Hawaii City Plaza on Sheridan Street, Ewa of Walmart; a condo on the makai side of Kapiolani fronting Kona Iki Street; and a hotel and condo called Manaolana Place at the corner of Kapiolani and Atkinson Drive.

Avalon bought its property for $22.3 million from a company called LYK Kenrock LLC. The property includes a trio of two-story buildings that are about 50 percent occupied by office and retail tenants that include Xo Cafe &Lounge and Celebrity Tuxedo.

The buildings, known as the Kenrock Buildings, are examples of post-World War II modernist architecture and were built between 1948 and 1960. A 2011 report produced by local design firm Fung Associates Inc. for the Historic Hawaii Foundation said the Kenrock property is one of only three that remain in their original form on Kapiolani from about 1950. The other two are the Hawaiian Life Building at 1311 Kapiolani Blvd. and the Boysen Paint Store building at 1659 Kapiolani Blvd.

Architects Cyril “Cy” Lemmon and Douglas Freeth designed Kenrock, and their firm later became Architects Hawaii Ltd. Emile Alano, the firm’s chief operating officer, said the initial Kenrock building was the first major office building on Kapiolani. It became the home of the architectural firm in 1950 and set an early style trend for development on the boulevard with horizontal garden office clusters.

“The connection between downtown Honolulu and Waikiki was just beginning to become a significant business location,” he said.

Since then, many high-rises have replaced old buildings along the Kapiolani corridor. And more are being drawn by the anticipated connection to rail.

The city’s transit-oriented development, or TOD, plan says the Kenrock site is prime for redevelopment given its proximity to the planned rail station.

Under normal zoning, a building on the site could rise up to 250 feet and and contain 100,000 square feet of residential or commercial floor area, which is tied to the size of the lot and excludes parking.

Under TOD zoning for the site, the maximum height is 400 feet with a floor area of 400,000 square feet.