Next Ward Village tower wins approval

A go-ahead for another luxury condominium tower at Ward Village was issued Wednesday, but it came with a deadline to finish much of a central public plaza that critics contend should have been delivered sooner.

Board members of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency regulating development in Kakaako, unanimously approved a permit for the planned 350-unit tower Victoria Place.

The board, however, also attached conditions so that a nearby grassy area called Victoria Ward Park is turned into more of a landscaped public plaza before the new tower can be occupied.

Ward Village developer Howard Hughes Corp. said it appreciated HCDA’s work considering the Victoria Place plan and looks forward to starting construction late next year on the $374 million project where average unit prices will top $1 million.

“We’re excited,” Todd Apo, senior vice president of community development in Hawaii for Texas-based Hughes Corp., said after the decision.

Victoria Place is the seventh tower approved for Ward Village, and would take about two years to build on part of a site previously occupied by the retail complex Ward Warehouse.

Completing much of a 3-acre central public plaza within the master-planned Ward Village community has been an issue for more than two years, and was raised again at an initial public hearing on the Victoria Place development permit last month.

At Wednesday’s HCDA meeting, Ward Village resident Eric Yamaura said the promised plaza with pedestrian paths, shade from trees, seating and water features should be delivered before more tower projects are approved for 60 acres where Hughes Corp. envisions building 15 towers with about 4,500 homes plus 1 million square feet of retail.

“It’s not a usable park,” Yamaura said of the grassy area with a few trees that Hughes Corp. opened in December to meet a prior deadline imposed by HCDA. The park has been used for special events, but Yamaura said it’s not attractive for everyday public use.

“No one uses it,” said Yamaura, who lives at Anaha, which was the second tower completed at Ward Village.

Currently, four Ward Village towers have opened, and two more are under construction.

John Kobelansky Jr., who lives in Kakaako but not at Ward Village, also testified at Wednesday’s meeting and said Hughes Corp. should deliver the central plaza.

“When I think of plaza, I think of something enormous and something that everybody in the community can use,” he said. “But I’m not seeing that out there. It’s just a little piece of lawn.”

HCDA’s condition requires that at least 34,371 square feet, or almost 1 acre, of the plaza area mauka of Auahi Street and Victoria Place be substantially similar to artist representations for a separate piece of the planned plaza fronting Victoria Place as shown in the development permit application. The representation includes pedestrian pathways and many trees.

Hughes Corp. said in early 2017 that it needed four years to produce the central plaza described as the “heart” of its community, in part because tower construction fronting the plaza site would affect work.

Two towers, ‘A‘ali‘i and Ko‘ula, are under construction fronting one side of the main plaza area mauka of Auahi. As part of approving ‘A‘ali‘i in early 2017, HCDA required that much of the plaza be completed before ‘A‘ali‘i is occupied.

Hughes Corp. said in 2017 that it would deliver not much more than a lawn as an interim measure to meet the deadline tied to ‘A‘ali‘i.

“Surely it could not have been the intent of HCDA to obtain a central plaza that is simply a grassed area,” the developer said in an objection to HCDA’s decision in 2017.

On Wednesday, Hughes Corp. did not object to the new plaza enhancement deadline.

HCDA also attached conditions to the Victoria Place permit requiring Hughes Corp. to make the makai side of Auahi more attractive for pedestrians and to potentially accelerate construction of moderately priced homes at Ward Village.

As part of the Victoria Place approval, Hughes Corp. has to start building 108 moderately priced residences at Ward Village before it can obtain a permit for foundation work on any tower following Victoria Place.

HCDA requires that 20% of homes in projects that rise above 45 feet be affordable to moderate-income residents. Under HCDA rules applying to Ward Village, Hughes Corp. only has to start building the moderate-priced homes within two years of completing the project that triggers the requirement.

Hughes Corp. already has delivered 48 of 70 moderate-priced homes for Victoria Place at its 425-unit Ke Kilohana tower that opened earlier this year on Ward Avenue. The outstanding requirement of 108 moderate-­priced homes reflects 22 units tied to Victoria Place and 86 for Ko‘ula.