Hilton exec
to head HCDADaniel Dinell's appointment comes
at a time when Kakaako is heading
into a construction boom
A top Hilton Hotels Corp. property development executive, Daniel Dinell, has been named executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which is responsible for the redevelopment of Kakaako and the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station lands at Kalaeloa.
The Honolulu-born Dinell has worked for Hilton since 1989. After five years with Hilton in Hawaii, where his responsibilities included development and community involvement for the 25-acre Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa, Dinell moved to Hilton headquarters in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 1994.
As vice president for strategic planning and community affairs, he was responsible for Hilton's governmental relations, hotel development and planning the company's operating strategy.
Before he joined Hilton, Dinell, who speaks Japanese, attended the University of Tokyo and was liaison for the overseas division of Nippon Express Co.
Dinell will start his new job on Jan. 15.
HCDA oversees 670 acres in Kakaako, with the mauka areas spreading all the way from King Street to Ala Moana in width and Piikoi Street to Punchbowl in length, and the makai area from Ala Moana to the sea between Ward Avenue and the Coast Guard station at Pier 4.
The agency also is responsible for 3,700 acres at Kalaeloa, which was added to the HCDA's package after the Barbers Point Naval Air Station Redevelopment Commission was phased out in 2002.
The appointment comes at a critical time for the HCDA. After years of studies and development, Kakaako is heading into a construction boom, with the John A. Burns School of Medicine on the makai side already under way and ground broken for two high-rise apartment buildings on the mauka portion.
There are also plans for marine-science facilities and a big aquarium, and the area's major land owners, the state and Kamehameha Schools, have their own ideas for future commercial and residential projects.
There is also a move in the Legislature, backed by Gov. Linda Lingle, to add the downtown waterfront responsibilities of the Aloha Tower Development Corp. to those of the HCDA.
ATDC properties include the waterfront along Nimitz Highway as far as Pier 14.
The former HCDA executive director, Jan Yokota, left her post in early August to become director of capital improvements for the University of Hawaii for $120,000 a year. She was being paid a salary in the mid-$80,000s at HCDA.
Sandra Pfund, who had been a project director on the HCDA staff, has been acting executive director since then.
Dinell's salary was not disclosed.
The HCDA was created by the state Legislature in 1976, with the aim of organizing timely planning, regulation and control of Kakaako.