Demolition of King’s Village, a circa-1970s Waikiki landmark patterned after Disneyland’s Main Street USA, is slated to begin next month to make way for a soaring 32-story Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare tower.

Hilton Grand Vacations, or HGV, said the razing of the former King’s Village shopping center and adjacent structures in the 1.05-acre site is slated to run through July.

This summer, HGV plans to start building a 191-unit tower with a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom timeshare units.

Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Jeff Merz said the community was receptive to HGV’s tower plans during a Tuesday update to the board.

“There was the usual discussion about density and views, but no one came out against the project,” Merz said. “It’s pretty much the same physical structure that the Waikiki Neighborhood Board approved three years ago when the project’s former owner was pursuing a planned resort development.”

Merz said HGV, which acquired the site last year from BSC KVSC LLC, has pledged to honor the former owner’s community commitments, including turning Kaiulani Avenue into a two-way street, providing $1 million in community givebacks for the right to exceed height and density requirements, and creating a public pocket park on Prince Edward Street.

Fans of the project say it grows Hawaii’s timeshare market, which is noted for delivering higher-spending, resilient tourists. It also will continue gentrifying the back half of Waikiki.

Waikiki resident Dave Moskowitz said that he also is pleased that HGV has pledged to work at preserving the Variety Club Celebrity Circle’s collection of celebrity stars and hand prints. The display in King’s Villages’ inner courtyard features past Hawaii greats like Duke Kahanamoku, Hilo Hattie, Don Ho and Jim Nabors.

“I love that they are preserving the history of this place, which recently had gotten a little run down. Revitalization will be good for neighborhood residents and surrounding businesses,” Moskowitz said.

Critics of the project, including Waikiki resident Denise Boisvert-Jorgensen, have said that tourism and high-rise density are out of control in Waikiki.

Tiny Kaiulani Avenue, which runs between Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues, will soon see big changes.

The Princess Kaiulani Hotel, across the street from King’s Village, is going to be torn down to construct a 33-story mega-tower with approximately 1,009 hotel units. If all goes according to plan, hotel owner Kyo-ya would begin demolition and construction in mid-2022 with an anticipated completion date of 2025.

“Allowing both monstrous tower projects to start at the same time, barely a block from one another, should be considered an inhumane assault on the quality of life of all the local residents in Waikiki’s heavily populated adjacent apartment precinct,” Boisvert-Jorgensen said. “The construction noise and horrendous traffic problems that the residents will be forced to endure over the next three years will be followed by a daily influx of thousands more pedestrians, especially from the vacation timeshare tower, and hundreds more cars onto the already very crowded sidewalks and streets in our neighborhood.”

The timeshare project, which will be HGV’s sixth resort on Oahu, is expected to be completed toward the end of 2021, with sales slated to begin in 2020. It will increase HGV’s total timeshare count to 1,429 units on Oahu, where the timeshare market is particularly strong.

“The King’s Village project is part of HGV’s continued efforts to expand its portfolio on Oahu. HGV’s most recent property was The Grand Islander by Hilton Grand Vacations Club, which opened in March 2017,” said HGV spokeswoman Megumi Haubner. “Current timeshare occupancy is at 90 percent with strong interest from existing domestic and Japanese owner families, which achieved a milestone of 60,000 Japanese club members last year.”