Twin-tower Keeaumoku project wins Council OK

The Honolulu City Council on Wednesday gave the green light to a twin-tower condominium project that is expected to add nearly 1,000 more residential units to the Keeaumoku Street area.

Resolution 19-224 was approved 7-0. Council members Brandon Elefante and Ron Menor were absent and excused from attending Wednesday’s meeting.

The Council’s approval gives Keeaumoku Development LLC a special district permit and an Interim Planned Development-Transit permit to proceed on the project bounded by Keeaumoku, Liona and Rycroft streets, two blocks makai of South King Street.

Each of the towers will be able to rise to a maximum 400 feet under the approvals. Current zoning for the area allows for buildings of up to 150 feet. Planned are 836 market-rate multifamily units and 128 affordable multifamily units. The project also will include 88,000 square feet of commercial space, a 12-story parking structure and a publicly accessible park and plaza.

Besides greater height and density, the developer will be allowed a modified height setback, transitional height setback, landscaping, and parking requirements of the underlying zoning district. But developer officials note that proposed guidelines for the Ala Moana Transit Oriented Development zone would allow for similar concessions.

The project is within the TOD zone of the planned Ala Moana rail transit center on Kona Street next to Ala Moana Center.

The affordable units will need to stay in that category for 30 years.

The city Department of Planning and Permitting supported the project, but opposed the Council’s decision to allow units to be sold “bundled” with parking stalls. DPP argued unsuccessfully that a bill before the Council would require the residential units at future projects that are similar to the Keeaumoku development to be sold without bundled stalls, meaning residents would need to park in common, unassigned stalls.

Project representative Wyatt Matsubara said not being allowed to attach a stall or stalls with a unit significantly lowers the market value of a unit and is “definitely something we couldn’t do from a financial perspective.”

The Keeaumoku development measure was the only issue to get a vote at Wednesday’s full Council meeting that was not tied to either the impacts of the coronavirus or the city budget.

Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson told reporters Tuesday that only matters pertaining to the coronavirus outbreak and the budget would be taken up and that other matters on the 32-page agenda posted last Thursday would not be taken up on Wednesday.

Anderson said after Wednesday’s meeting that he consented to requests made by area Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi and Council Zoning Chairman Ron Menor to allow the Keeaumoku project to receive its final vote.

Development planner Keith Kurahashi said he asked Kobayashi to make the request of Anderson because the issue has been stuck in the Council since September and has been delayed repeatedly for various reasons. The rule says the Council must act within 60 days of receiving an IDP-T permit application from DPP.

Kurahashi said the application had to obtain two 90-day deadline extensions from the Council because of the delays when, typically, IDP-T permits take two to three months to move through the Council.