Some 16 years after the Stadium Bowl-O-Drome bowling alley closed, leaving the prime Moiliili property mostly unused, new life is prepping to emerge.

The Department of Hawaiian Homes Lands (DHHL) has selected a developer — a partnership of Stanford Carr Development and Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company — for a $137 million affordable rental project, to include a 23-story high-rise with 270 units, a four-story parking structure lined with seven townhouse units, plus 4,680 square feet of retail space.

This will be DHHL’s first high-rise rental project, so its success for beneficiaries will be carefully watched. More details, and input, are sure to come, as the project undergoes the environmental assessment process soon.

Expanding cemetery in Kaneohe

Eleven years after a community group successfully contested a Hawaiian Memorial Park expansion plan, an improved one has secured a go-ahead.

Hui o Pikoiloa still contends that negative effects will outweigh the positive. Even so, the state Land Use Commission this week gave its OK to reclassifying 28 acres of Kaneohe land from conservation to urban use, and attached a long list of conditions to address issues of stormwater drainage, endangered species habitat, tree removal, rockfall hazards and other concerns that led the group to challenge proposed expansion of the 80-acre site.