Plans advancing for 10th Ward Village tower

The developer of Ward Village is pushing ahead to obtain a permit for what would be its 10th tower in the high-rise Kakaako neighborhood.

Kalae Ward Village is intended to rise on the mauka-Diamond Head corner of Ala Moana Boulevard and Ward Avenue, where Spaghetti Factory and other restaurants and retail stores once stood at the Ewa end of the former Ward Warehouse shopping complex.

Ka‘iulani Sodaro, senior vice president of planning and development for Ward Village developer Howard Hughes Corp., described this next step in filling out the master-planned community during a virtual meeting Thursday of the Hawaii Society of Business Professionals.

Sodaro said Hughes Corp. is engaged in work to obtain a development permit for the envisioned 330-unit Kalae tower from the Hawaii Community Development Authority.

HCDA, a state agency regulating development in Kakaako, would schedule public hearings on the planned project after an application is deemed complete.

Sodaro said no deviations from HCDA rules will be sought for Kalae, which is expected to be another luxury condo tower given its prime frontage along Ala Moana across from Kewalo Harbor. The state-owned harbor is managed by Hughes Corp. under a lease.

“Ward Village is excited to continue supporting our vibrant and growing neighborhood for the benefit of our community,” Sodaro said in a statement after the meeting. “Kalae Ward Village will improve street­scapes and recreation with additional open space and connections to the greater Kakaako community.”

Since 2016, Texas-based Hughes Corp. has built five towers at Ward Village, a 60-acre site that in recent decades had been a mix of mainly retail and industrial buildings known as Ward Centers.

A sixth and seventh tower, Koula and Victoria Place, are under construction and slated for completion next year and in 2024, respectively.

The eighth and ninth towers, The Park Ward Village and Ulana Ward Village, were approved by HCDA earlier this year and are in a sales phase.

Under the state-approved master plan, Hughes Corp. anticipates developing up to around 4,500 residential units in 16 towers, along with 1 million square feet of retail space and several parks.