Panel backs Block-J changes
By Treena Shapiro
Star-BulletinDowntown Honolulu would get a new park and more public parking, under changes in the City Council resolution on the Block J affordable rental project development.
The City Council Budget and Economic Development Committee voted yesterday to approve a scaled down version of the Block J and Associates affordable rental project. It was originally planned to be two towers with 913 rental units on the 4-acre municipal parking lot bounded by Pali Highway and Beretania, Queen Emma and Kukui streets.
Because financiers are willing to finance only one tower due to Hawaii's dismal economy, the project has been broken into stages.
The first phase will include one tower with 438 senior or multifamily rental units, 8,500 square feet of commercial space, and 1,104 tenant parking stalls. The second phase would include a second tower with 415 affordable rental units, 8,400 square feet of commercial space and 1,549 parking stalls.
The developers also will be able to use about 50,000 square feet under Pali Highway and Kamalii Park to build an underground parking structure.
The developers would pay the city an $8 million premium, a $5 million fee to develop a 57,865-square-foot park at the Smith and Beretania parking lot, as well as a guaranteed annual lease rent of $650,000 for five years.
