A couple of years or so from now, pedestrians walking through part of Ward Village in Kakaako might be tempted to sing a popular old Hawaiian song.

Pua wale mai no ke aloha

Ka pa‘ia puia ke‘ala

I ka wai hu‘ihu‘i aniani

Ko‘iawe ka huila wai

Listen to “Ku’u Home” (Old Plantation) courtesy of Ho’okena:

That’s the beginning of “Ku‘u Home,” written by Mary Jane Montano and David Nape about the “Old Plantation” estate of Curtis and Victoria Ward built nearby more than a century ago, and the song conveys the love of a place filled with the fragrance of plants and crystal-­clear spring water.

Ward Village’s developer, Texas-based Howard Hughes Corp., intends to showcase the song’s two verses and chorus along with an English translation spaced phrase by phrase on a stretch of sidewalk alongside a planned new condominium tower, Victoria Place, and leading to a makai portion of a future public park dubbed Victoria Ward Park.

The idea is part of a creative effort by Hughes Corp. to make the makai side of Auahi Street a more attractive pedestrian thoroughfare that satisfies a requirement imposed by the board of a state agency regulating development in Kakaako.

Hughes Corp. also intends to create a “lush, shaded oasis” along the sidewalk with landscaping that features tree and shrub species that used to be at Old Plantation, including pua kenikeni, kou, milo, coconut, gardenia, Oahu sedge, kupukupu fern, bird of paradise and rose jatropha.

“The idea here from an activation standpoint is to tie into some of the interesting history of the land and Victoria Ward’s family through the use of song lyrics about the Old Plantation home,” Race Randle, senior vice president of development for Hughes Corp. in Hawaii, told the board of the Hawaii Community Development Authority at a recent virtual meeting.

Randle also said the landscaping would create an additional pedestrian sensory experience connected with the song, which speaks of fragrant flowers, ferns, coconut trees and birds.

HCDA approved the plan earlier this month with a unanimous board vote.

The approval followed criticism from the board a year ago after Hughes Corp. presented plans for the “ultra luxury” Victoria Place tower along Auahi Street between the company’s first tower at Ward Village, Waiea, and the area slated to become part of Victoria Ward Park.

John Whalen, HCDA board chairman, pointed out last year that Hughes Corp. didn’t appear to be following its master plan, which calls for making Auahi a pedestrian­-oriented boulevard “ideal for strolling, window shopping and outdoor dining” and a “green urban promenade and principal shopping spine.”

Much of a sidewalk along Waiea fronts a solid wall of the tower, and Whalen criticized the plan for the mauka side of Victoria Place as a plain facade with no retail or restaurants.

“It turns its back on what was supposed to be a principal street,” he said last year. “It is in effect a blank wall. There’s no activity there.”

Hughes Corp. had eliminated an envisioned restaurant and cafe with outdoor seating at Victoria Place fronting Auahi Street because such uses weren’t expected to do well given their distance from more concentrated retail and restaurant areas at Ward Village.

HCDA approved the Victoria Place tower plan last year, but with conditions that included activating the pedestrian experience along Auahi Street.

At the Sept. 2 meeting, Whalen said he was disappointed that no commercial use is planned on the mauka side of Victoria Place, but he acknowledged the challenges, especially with businesses suffering from COVID-19 impacts.

Hughes Corp. expects to start construction on Victoria Place, its seventh tower, early next year. Condo prices in the planned 349-unit building range from $1.2 million to $5.2 million, and the developer reported last month that buyers had signed 242 contracts through July.

Like other new sidewalks at Ward Village, residential and commercial property owners in the community will pay to maintain the walkways, which are on private property and allow public use under an easement.

Randle said the new sidewalk with lush landscaping and song lyrics would be maintained by Victoria Place owners, Ward Village’s master community association or a combination of the two. Unit owners pay $25 a month to maintain public areas throughout Ward Village.

The developer’s master plan calls for 15 towers with about 4,500 homes plus 1 million square feet of retail on 60 acres that once belonged to Curtis and Victoria Ward.

The Wards at one time owned land stretching from Thomas Square to the shoreline, and built their stately Southern-style Old Plantation mansion makai of King Street in 1881 at the same time Iolani Palace was being built.

Ward heirs were forced to sell some property to the city, including Old Plantation, which was demolished in 1959. Heirs, who sold remaining lands to a predecessor of Hughes Corp. in 2002, redeveloped remaining holdings largely with industrial and retail uses that included the Ward Warehouse shopping complex, which was demolished in 2017 to make way for Victoria Place and a tower at the corner of Auahi Street and Ward Avenue.