Hughes advances
waterfront plans
Texas developer Ken Hughes, with a list of successful urban renewal projects to his credit, spent this week in Honolulu and left city and state agencies with a string of new ideas for the development of the downtown Honolulu waterfront.
One idea is a streetcar system that would circle the central business district and run through it from as far inland as Beretania Street down to the waterfront near Aloha Tower.
Flexible vehicles, bending in two places so they can make right-angle turns, would run on rails at curbside, taking residents, business executives and tourists around downtown and into new park, shopping, entertainment and residential facilities along the waterfront.
Hughes, who is still the chosen developer for empty Piers 5 and 6, was set to leave Honolulu yesterday with no firm development agreement in place, but retaining his right as the only developer the Aloha Tower Development Corp. will talk to for the time being.
His Dallas-based company, UC Urban, was chosen by the ATDC in February as the best developer to work with for the waterfront development.
Hughes said as development ideas progress toward decision-making, he would like to see a government commitment to a fast-track approval process that would minimize development costs.
A big part of Hughes's proposal for Piers 5 and 6 involves rental residences and he told the ATDC yesterday that he has had to rethink hotel and condominium ideas because of the condition of the market and the availability of financing.
Rentals could work in the project he now calls Pacific Quay, he said, because land cost is not as big a factor on state-owned property as it would be on private land. But to develop downtown residences a transit connection is a must, said Hughes, whose developments have included the highly successful Mockingbird Station, a residential- retail-entertainment complex that sits on top of a major transit hub in Dallas.
"The only way the (central business district) can get connected to the waterfront is rail," Hughes told an ATDC board meeting yesterday. He envisages a system like the new streetcar in Portland, Ore., that would circle downtown and run to the waterfront, using electric vehicles that run on rails, but share traffic lanes with cars.
Hughes said a streetcar system like Portland's would cost about $11 million a mile, including street reconstruction and the streetcars themselves. The bus rail transit system favored by the City and County of Honolulu would cost about $23 million a mile, he said.
Cheryl Soon, city transportation director, said Hughes's thinking about a connection between the business district and the waterfront is consistent with city thinking. Mayor Jeremy Harris has long been looking for ways of "taking down the barrier that currently exists," as Nimitz makes its big cut between the two areas.
"There is certainly a lot of merit in having a loop between the waterfront and the central business district," Soon said.
Hughes said he had contact with Hawaiian Electric Co. this week, with a view to moving its downtown generating station to make way for a park. "It's not an option, in a downtown area that wants housing, to omit green space," Hughes said.
Hawaiian Electric has said it needs a generator downtown for emergencies and hasn't been able to find an economical alternative to its present location.
Hughes said help might be available from the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit that helps buy sites for parks and other community uses.