Plans for a 350-foot, 213-unit condo-hotel on the site of King’s Village and two adjoining Waikiki properties will get its first airing before the Honolulu City Council Zoning Committee on Thursday.
Developers of the
$200 million, 32-story project, dubbed 133 Kaiulani, are seeking a Planned Development-Resort permit from the Council that would relax some requirements under the city land use ordinance.
The maximum building height allowed by the properties’ zoning is 240 feet, and developers want to raise the height to 350 feet. The two 39-story towers that make up the Hyatt Regency Waikiki just makai of the project site are also each 350 feet tall. Developers contend that raising the height limit would allow for a slim profile and less intrusion on the view of the ocean for those living mauka of the site.
Developers also want to provide a smaller amount of open space on the ground floor than is allowed under the land use ordinance.
The Planned Development-Resort permit being sought in Council Resolution 16-52 also allows the three lots to be developed jointly.
The three properties total about 1.05 acres. Besides the King’s Village shopping complex, the Prince Edward Apartments and Hale Waikiki would also be razed to make way for the new project.
Project developers would be required to put up only one parking space for every four units, so about 80 percent of the 213 stalls planned would be available to other users. They are also planning a public “pocket park” along Prince Edward Street.
The project is a partnership of local firms Kobayashi Group, the MacNaughton Group and BlackSand Capital LLC.
Developers have agreed to provide $1 million in community benefits, including $500,000 for the state’s Waikiki Beach sand replenishment program.
Councilman Trevor Ozawa, who represents the area, last week proposed that $900,000 of the community benefits package be diverted to help a nonprofit organization develop an urban rest stop that would provide free restrooms, showers and laundry facilities for homeless people in Waikiki. The model has had success in Seattle and elsewhere, Ozawa said in a prepared news release last week.
The current proposed distribution for the $1 million community benefits package was negotiated between the developers and the Waikiki Neighborhood Board in 2014, board Chairman Robert Finley said. Besides the $500,000 for the replenishment project, the package calls for $200,000 to support two city-run public restrooms next to the Honolulu Police Department Waikiki substation, $200,000 for unspecified projects to help the homeless at facilities “on the east side of Waikiki” and $100,000 for accessibility and bathroom improvements at the Waikiki Community Center or a similar project.
Finley said he and his board have yet to be briefed about Ozawa’s proposal and want to schedule time for him to do so at an upcoming meeting. “The neighborhood board’s position is we voted on one thing, and now there’s something different — we have to take a look at that,” he said.
He said he’s not sure whether a hygiene center like the one proposed by Ozawa would be the most effective way the money could help the existing homeless in Waikiki. After the city’s large effort to remove the homeless from the tourist mecca a year ago, the ones who remain are intent on staying, he said.
The public restrooms next to the police substation have not deterred people from relieving themselves along the sand beaches nearby, Finley said. “If you put a shower facility in, how many will use it?”
Instead, he said, a hygiene center could “increase the size of the Waikiki magnet for the homeless.”
The Waikiki board has voted to support the 133 Kaiulani project, Finley said. The developers have been responsive to community concerns. He noted that the project’s size has been reduced to one tower and 214 units when it once consisted of two towers and 256 units. Developers also shifted the footprint of the structure to reduce the impact on view planes, although loss of view planes remains an issue with some area residents, Finley said.
More important, 133 Kaiulani’s developers have worked more cooperatively and with more transparency than other recent Waikiki developers, he said.
