An affordable-housing group seeking to convert the long-vacant Queen Emma Tower into a rental complex for those in the lowest income categories won preliminary approval Wednesday from the City Council Zoning, Planning and Housing Committee for waivers of various project fees and requirements.

Queen Emma LLC, which is affiliated with the nonprofit Affordable Housing and Economic Development Foundation, wants to convert the 12-story building, formerly used for office space, into a 71-unit affordable rental tower that would be available to those making no more than 60% of Honolulu’s area median income as defined under federal housing guidelines. The project is mauka of the Capitol Place condominium tower and across from St. Andrew’s Cathedral.

Project plans call for 32 studios, 13 one-bedroom units and 26 two-bedroom dwellings. Of the units, 67 would be available to those earning at or below 60% of the area median income and four to those making no more than 30%. Rent for a studio would be about $650 a month.

The project’s developers are committed to keeping the affordable rates for at least 61 years.

The exemptions being sought in Resolution 19-163 include waivers of building and construction permit fees, park dedication and wastewater system facility charges and, more than likely, Honolulu Board of Water Supply system facility fees. City Water Manager Ernest Lau said he wants to verify the project met a deadline to be eligible for the waiver.

The project would also be exempt from various land use ordinance requirements, including one that would have required the developer to provide one parking stall for each of the 71 units. Queen Emma would have 15 spaces and be required to create a parking management plan.

All told, the exemptions would save the project an estimated $1.95 million.

Paul Marx, CEO of the Affordable Housing and Economic Development Foundation, said the exemptions are critical to the project’s feasibility. A majority of the financing is coming through the state Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp.

The building has been vacant for more than 10 years, Marx said. “It’s a neighborhood blight; it doesn’t look very good. It would be nice to have it fixed up,” he said.

Marx said the group is hoping to begin construction as early as next month and have residents move in starting June. Renters would be determined by lottery.

Kathy Sokugawa, acting director of the Department of Planning and Permitting, said the project is one of three she knows of that concern rental housing for the downtown area. “That’s a good trend hopefully that will continue to provide a rejuvenated downtown for the community,” she said.

Also Wednesday the committee gave preliminary approval to Resolution 19-139, giving a permit that would allow a major expansion at the Women’s Community Correctional Center in Kailua.

The facility currently has 260 beds, and the five-year master plan would first add 172 beds and then 192 more for a total of 624, according to a DPP report. All of the expansion would be within the current 122-acre campus.

This would be the first-ever improvement or expansion project for the decades-old facility.