If you build it, will they come?

Downtown Honolulu, once bustling with office workers who frequented eateries at lunchtime, has seen a downturn in office space occupancy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and needs revitalization, say businesses and developers.

But even if they build change, they fear people won’t come, so they would like to create a business improvement district to help with first sweeping out crime, grime and the homeless.

It’s first objective: “Clean and Safe.”

“It’s great to have festivals and events, but they cost money,” Avalon Group CEO Christine Camp said. “We need to focus on cleanliness and safety. That’s what we have to start with.”

Two hundred stakeholders — residents, business and property owners, developers, government officials — filled the Laniakea YWCA auditorium last week to hear panelists touting the plan, with many weighing in.

Colbert Matsumoto, head of Tradewind Group, brought a group of 40 businesses to the table, and they have come up with a plan to form a BID from Nuuanu Avenue to Richards Street (Ewa to Diamond Head), and South Ber­etania Street to Ala Moana Boulevard (mauka to makai).

Hawaii Pacific University’s head of security, Chris Martin, said at Wednesday’s event, “We struggle with the environment of downtown, the homelessness of downtown.”

Although crime is down, the real problem lies in the uncertainty of walking around downtown after 6 p.m. when it becomes different, said Martin. HPU has downsized its campus on Fort Street Mall but still remains there.

The BID would initially focus on keeping public spaces clean and safe, and would require property owners to pay a fee, which could be passed on to tenants.

A draft budget proposes charging what amounts to 1 to 3 cents per square foot, which would work out to roughly $30 a month for a 1,000-square-foot space, Camp said.

The initial plan would be for five years, requiring the creation of a nonprofit governed by a board or committee of business owners, landowners and government representatives.

It would be funded by assessments on property owners, which would be collected by the city.

It could provide services such as security, maintenance and advocacy; implement branding and marketing campaigns; produce public events such as street events; and make capital improvements.

This would require an ordinance supported by the City Council.

The initial step would be a petition signed by landowners owning lands within the proposed district that have a real property tax assessed value of at least 25% of the total real property tax assessed value of all land in the proposed district.

If 51% of landowners object, the process stops.

“If it fails, it doesn’t get renewed,” Camp said. She said her company has already made a significant bet on downtown Honolulu by making several major purchases there in the past few years with a view to changing the face of the district.

“The stars are aligned — not just us, but other investors are actively involved,” she said.

Reyn Tanaka, vice president and asset manager of WKF Inc., says he has been associated with the Fort Street Mall BID for nine years.

The BID has helped to communicate with other property owners to reimagine downtown, to direct pedestrian traffic and not the “lunchtime traditional hustle and bustle, then nothing.”

It has opened an adult day care and the first Hawaii Paris Baguette, a South Korean-based chain of French-inspired bakery cafes, to send a message it supports the downtown revival.

Waikiki BID Association President and CEO Trevor Abarzua said the Waikiki BID spends 70% of its budget on keeping it clean and safe with 60 Aloha Ambassadors, some focused on safety and others on hospitality.

He boasts the BID’s success in Waikiki’s reduction of crime from its first year to its second year (beginning September 2021), citing a 67% reduction in drug and alcohol crimes, 35% reduction in robberies, 32% reduction in burglaries and 27% reduction in criminal property damage.

Its success is due to partnering with police, prosecutors, homeless outreach workers and its Safe &Sound initiative funded by grants from the Kosasa Foundation and the city.

Waikiki has seen a 27% reduction in homelessness, Abarzua says, and the initiative is “not just to push them out; it’s to get them housed, get them medication or to send them back to the mainland if that’s where they’re from.”

Since there aren’t enough police to patrol closed parks at night, the city helped provide for outreach workers to help clear the beaches and those sleeping near storefronts.

“If (they) don’t want to keep getting poked and poked and poked,” they leave; otherwise, the workers warn they will call police, and “they get up and move,” he said.

Moderator Chris Fong asked, “Where do they go after they get poked and prodded? Downtown?”

That drew a huge laugh from the audience.

Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm said police arrested 200 in Chinatown.

“We’re getting them assessed and addressing their behavioral health,” he said. “We can try to get them into treatment and out of there. Arresting can be a real answer to all of this.”

Those without homes who shelter in downtown are part of what some say prevents prospective residents from wanting to live there.