RUSS LYNCH / RLYNCH@STARBULLETIN.COM Diners enjoy lunch around the Water Clock at Restaurant Row.

Row redo
stops clock

Owners look to increase visibility
for the project through design changes

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

The real estate investment partnership that bought Restaurant Row in November 2000 is ready to launch its improvements, which it says will finally make the 14-year-old center the wining, dining and entertainment hub it was meant to be.

In the process, a landmark will go. The "countdown clock," also called the "water clock," which for a very few years not only kept time but cranked bubbles up and down tubes, physically rotated and was meant from the start to be the centerpiece of the complex, will be pulled down in a few weeks.

It used to count down to midnight on New Year's Eve and other dates and was one of those places where people would meet.

Alan Beall, one of the original developers of the Restaurant Row/Waterfront Plaza office and retail complex, recalls finding out that the clock was for sale after an Expo in Vancouver, B.C., and buying it for the new Honolulu complex that opened in 1988.

It gave its share of fun to a lot of people, but it hasn't worked for years and the worn-out and broken parts can't be replaced, the Row's operators say.

But wait and see, they say, and in a few months the entire complex will be more user-friendly -- and tenant-friendly -- than it has been for years.

Renovations worth a million dollars and using local contractors, such as architects Group 70 International Inc. and the construction firm Allied Builders System, will produce some positive changes, said Andy Friedlander, head of Colliers Monroe Friedlander Inc., the Honolulu company responsible for managing and leasing the center.

Construction and redoing signs, some of which still needs approval from authorities, should start Aug. 1 and take 4-6 months, Friedlander said.

It will be done fast so as to cause the least disruption to tenants and their customers, he said.

Changes will include upgraded public restrooms and improved direction signs in the parking area.

But the most visible changes will be the replacement of the gazebo at the South Street-Ala Moana corner with a more park-like collection of flag poles, signs making it clearer that it is a restaurant complex, and turning the clock area into a more-accessible gathering area, Friedlander said.

James Johnston, owner of the Wizard's Coffee Works kiosk at the Punchbowl end of the complex, said he has enjoyed the business but accepts the closure of the old kiosk and is ready to provide the same service, drinks and food at a site closer to the center of Restaurant Row.

Fred Livingston, owner of Sunset Grill -- a restaurant at the Punchbowl end that was an original tenant -- said he welcomes the coming changes.

"There is no question in my mind that the great majority of people in Honolulu have not been to Restaurant Row," Livingston said. A number of restaurants there have died and "if there were enough traffic they would have survived," he said.

That puts him in agreement with the owners of the complex.

In late 2000, a partnership of two U.S. real estate companies -- Kojaian Management Corp. and Witkoff Group -- bought Restaurant Row and the adjacent office complex called Waterfront Plaza from New York-based Teachers Insurance & Annuity Assn., after a complex bankruptcy case that cut out the original developers and left their financier, TIAA, in charge.

At the time the Michigan-based buyers said they would need to change the Row's visibility.

That's when they started learning about Honolulu's sign laws and how it might not be as easy as they would like to achieve their desired visibility. Meanwhile, several startups in the complex failed, leaving Ruth's Chris Steak House, Sunset Grill and the non-food Row Bar as the main survivors.