Marriott Vacations Worldwide plans to build a timeshare in the long vacant King Kalakaua Plaza, also known as the former Niketown building.

The company and its architecture firm, Clifford Planning &Architecture, revealed preliminary plans Tuesday during a Waikiki Neighborhood Board meeting.

Benjamin Lee, principal at Clifford Planning &Architecture, said Marriott Vacations Worldwide plans to build a U-shaped, seven-story building with two ground floors of retail with roughly 110 timeshare units divided across the top five floors. There will be a rooftop recreation deck with an infinity pool and open space.

The redevelopment would keep two levels of basement parking with more than 200 stalls.

Lee said the plan from Marriott Vacations Worldwide is “very modest.”

The height limit in the Waikiki Resort Mixed-use Precinct is 300 feet, but buildings up to 350 feet are allowed if approved by the City Council.

The new plans would replace an unsuccessful four-story retail building, which was owned by California -––based Robertson Properties Group and currently sits on a redevelopment site fronting Kalakaua and Kuhio avenues between Olohana and Kalaimoku streets.

Robertson Properties Group, which had plans to redevelop the other Niketown building into an extended-stay hotel, recently sold its interests in the building. The Waikiki board had supported the extended-stay hotel plans; however, members were not asked to take a vote following the latest informational briefing on the new timeshare plan. Lee said Marriott Vacations Worldwide would return to the board to seek an opinion after more studies have been completed.

“We are looking at breaking ground in spring of 2021,” Lee said. “The building has been empty for about nine years and the street has seen very little activity.”

Timothy Tansey, Marriott Vacations Worldwide senior regional director for development management, said the company is eyeing Waikiki because of demand from its ownership and guests.

“A lot of our guests who are owners are really wanting to be in the Waikiki area. We are out in Ko Olina, but we have a lot that would like to be in Waikiki,” Tansey said. “We do have a lot that want to be part of the Waikiki neighborhood. We plan to provide a beautiful location for our ownership and a more active location than what’s been here for the last 10 plus years.”

Demand for Hawaii timeshares has been growing, as evidenced by recent timeshare construction across the isles. In 2019 timeshares made up 15% of lodging demand on Hawaii, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s visitor plant inventory report. Also, the number of timeshare units across the state increased by 1.4% in 2019 to 12,090. That’s up from 10,716 in 2016, 11,062 in 2017 and 11,923 in 2018.

In 2019 the number of visitors to Hawaii who said they planned to stay in a timeshare during part of their stay increased by 1% to 850,653, while the number of visitors to Hawaii who planned to only stay in a timeshare increased by 2.4% to 666,819.

During the third quarter of 2019, the most recent timeshare performance data available from STR, HTA reported that the timeshare industry’s occupancy rate was 92.1%, an increase of two percentage points from the same period in 2018. In comparison, statewide hotel and condominium hotel occupancy averaged 82.6% during the third quarter.

Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Jeff Merz said, “On the face of it, I personally support this. That area needs some activation.”

However, Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Walt Flood said he is opposed to adding another timeshare to the neighborhood as in his opinion they have “a bad name.”

“I’d rather see this turned into low income rentals for people who live and work in Waikiki,” Flood said.

Tansey said Marriott Vacations Worldwide is committed to providing an excellent product for its owners and guests.

“We’re worldwide. We’re not, you know, a small outfit where a lot of people have problems with timeshare. We take care of our guests,” he said.