Kakaako plan would A new vision for the redevelopment of Kakaako calls for widening the Ala Moana road surface by up to 30 feet on both sides, installing a tree-lined median with a bus rapid transit line and low-rise development of housing, shops, restaurants and offices, all geared to the University of Hawaii's upcoming biotechnology and health education center.
create ‘urban village’
It should focus on pedestrians
and low-rise development,
a new report advisesBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comEverything should be biased in favor of pedestrians, representatives of national firms hired to create an overview plan told the Hawaii Community Development Authority yesterday.
Development must have a good pedestrian environment with wide sidewalks, trees and automobile parking hidden from public view, said Keith Orlesky, director of development advisory services with Cooper, Robertson & Partners, the New York-based urban design firm retained last fall by the major Kakaako land owners.
Ala Moana is "very difficult to cross" and creates one of Honolulu's "notorious traffic problems," but building more roads won't help, Orlesky said.
His firm spent nearly eight months studying Kakaako for the development authority and land owners Victoria Ward Ltd. and Kamehameha Schools. Victoria Ward was purchased earlier this year by Illinois-based General Growth Properties, owner of Ala Moana Center.
Orlesky and Sanford Murata, Kamehameha Schools' manager for the 45 commercial properties it owns in Hawaii, stressed that the plan presented yesterday was preliminary one, a "gateway" to future decisions.
The plan sets out possibilities and a West Coast firm that specializes in development economics, the Sedway Group, was on hand to talk about costs and benefits of various types of development, also preliminary.
There are 670 acres in the Kakaako District, a designation of lands controlled by the HCDA. The state owns about 200 acres, while Victoria Ward has 65 acres and Kamehameha Schools 55 acres.
Cooper, Robertson's vision sees housing, retail and high-technology support offices all within five or 10 minutes' walk from the new University of Hawaii Health and Wellness Center. The area would be an "urban village," Orlesky said, self-contained with little need for people to commute to or from the area.
His firm sees four "quadrants" of development, starting with a mixed use parcel along the makai side of Ala Moana that could include new headquarters and services offices for Kamehameha Schools. Hawaii Pacific University, now spread through a mixture of downtown buildings as well as its Kaneohe campus, has expressed interest, officials said.
A second quadrant would be an extension of Ward Centre on the mauka side of Ala Moana. Third would be Kewalo Basin, the area with "the most captivating character and potential," Orlesky said.
The fourth would be the medical school project.
Sedway and Cooper, Robertson said the key to creating a new Kakaako is to be flexible enough to meet new ideas for land use while moving ahead with improvements.
The biggest state project in the area is the $300 million UH Health and Wellness Center. The state has set aside 10 acres makai of the old Gold Bond building for that project. Ground will be broken this fall for the first phase of that development.
The Kakaako District consists of a makai parcel, running to the sea from Ala Moana and bounded by Kewalo Basin at one end and Pier 4 at the other, and a mauka parcel bounded by Ala Moana, Piikoi Street, King Street and Punchbowl Street.