The revitalization of Waikiki — and specifically, the Kuhio Avenue corridor — would see another welcome, transformative newcomer if developer OliverMcMillan delivers on what it’s selling.

Indeed, the project for new retail and rental housing on 2.5 acres of prime leasehold land — including the Food Pantry lot and the recently demolished Makittii restaurant site at Kuhio Avenue and Kanekapolei Street — is refreshing for the number of boxes it tries to check right out of the gate.

>> Affordable housing? Check. Plans call for 500 rental units, 100 of which would be set aside as affordable, for those earning up to 80 percent of the area median income. That’s a high need among our working folks: singles earning up $58,600, couples up to $67,000 and up to $83,700 for a family of four. A 450-unit, 260-foot high-rise would go on the old Makittii site, and four existing Kanekapolei Street apartment buildings would be renovated.

>> Retail and daily-life shopping? Check. Food Pantry, the district’s only full-service grocery store, would remain open until the second half of 2019, when redevelopment breaks ground. The site is envisioned to have a full-service grocer within the 38,000 square feet of retail space on two levels.

>> District compatibility? Check. Kuhio Avenue is undergoing needed rejuvenation, with a slew of projects these last couple of years, including the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach at the former Waikiki Trade Center, the Ritz-Carlton Residences and Hilton Garden Inn Waikiki Beach. And of course, there’s the recently renovated International Market Place, whose same landlord Queen Emma Land would be leasing OliverMcMillan its project tract under a 65-year deal. All this makes good dollars and sense in Hawaii’s tourism mecca — and for Queen Emma Land, would help generate revenues for its Queen’s Medical Center.

With Hawaii tourism on track for a record-high sixth year, it’s easy to be bullish on Waikiki. So there’s clearly much to like at this stage of this project. More will be heard at the Waikiki Neighborhood Board’s Nov. 14 meeting at the Waikiki Community Center.

Among other things, the developer then should be pressed for details about tenant displacement. A spokeswoman for DTL Hawaii, the developer’s consultant, said apartment tenants have been notified of the project and pre-development timeline, roughly 18-24 months.

Also to be vetted are specifics about the new 260-foot tower, and impacts such as parking and traffic as well as any variance requests regarding building densities and setbacks. Further, recent news and research regarding sewage, flooding and drainage in low-lying coastal areas might come to bear on all new Waikiki projects.

Developer OliverMcMillan has weathered past controversies, particularly over its gleaming Symphony Honolulu, the 400-foot tower at the corner of Ward Avenue and Kapiolani Boulevard that features a luxury car dealership at street level. The developer ended up paying the state $1 million when the 388-unit, mixed-use condo tower ran into problems with its highly reflective glass walls that exceeded code. The violation was discovered after much of the glass had been installed, though a state agency acknowledged the rule was unenforceable. Earlier, the tower had been granted an exemption from a rule intended to preserve mauka-makai views.

For Symphony Honolulu, OliverMcMillan had touted energy-efficient technologies such as solar panels, thermal zone cooling and reclamation of gray water. As more towers get pitched for the urban core, this developer and others should routinely be incorporating such technologies for more sustainable living.

As for OliverMcMillan’s Waikiki project, resident Denise Boisvert-Jorgensen opined: “Finally, a developer that seems to care more about local residents who need rental housing, and less about real estate-hungry multimillionaires.”

At this stage, that seems valid. But the developer can be sure that “local residents” and attentive others will be watching to see that it fulfills this early promise.