Artist's rendering
A rendering of the Kalia Tower. Completion is slated for 2000.

The hotel's management last night unveiled the plans for Kalia Tower, a 26-story building that had received government approvals about two years ago but was put on hold because of the state's economic downturn.

Construction is slated to start in April 1998 and be completed in the year 2000. Hilton said the new tower will have direct access to the existing conference and parking facilities on the property and have 5,000 square feet of function and retail space.

Open space around the tower will feature a 10,000-square-foot lagoon, a 25-foot waterfall and an aviary, Hilton said.

The building, at the Ala Moana-Kalia Road corner of the 20-acre Hilton property, will add 400 rooms to the 2,545-room resort.

The hotel's management said Kalia Tower will replace Hilton's 40-year-old geodesic dome.

Dieter Huckestein, former senior vice president of the Hawaii region for Hilton and now president of Hilton Hotels Corp.'s hotel division, promoted the idea of the new tower in the early 1990s.

Huckestein came to Honolulu for yesterday's signing of a contract with the island architectural firm of Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo to complete the master plan for Kalia Tower.

WATG created the master plan for $100 million worth of improvements on the Hawaiian Village site in the late 1980s.

The Hilton Hawaiian Village is a joint venture of Hilton Hotels Corp. and Prudential Insurance Co. of America.