Kaka'ko high-tech vision has yet to materialize

By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer

Six months ago, the future finally looked golden for the makai area of Kaka'ako.

The University of Hawai'i was planning to build its new medical school on state land there, anchoring a $125 million biomedical research center that would provide 1,400 jobs for the area.

Adtech, a high-tech firm with offices in Kaimuki, was negotiating with the state to lease land for a $50 million building next to the biomedical center, adding to the "tech" economy.

And state officials overseeing development of the area were envisioning a Hawai'i science museum, an ocean science museum and a swath of retail activities at Kewalo Basin.

But that was then.

In May, Adtech ended its talks with the state, citing tough times in the telecommunications industry it serves. Last week Evan Dobelle, the president of the University of Hawai'i, said Kaka'ako is just one of several sites he is considering for the new medical center. And while museums and retail activities are still planned for the area, they remain far from reality.

If the medical school goes elsewhere, state officials' dream of creating a waterfront oasis of medical training, research and public science education in an inviting, parklike setting will begin to seem increasingly fragile.

And for Kaka'ako makai — which has been called the last piece of undeveloped urban waterfront land in Honolulu and which has been at the center of numerous development plans for years — the future again may be in question.

"I think what is the right thing to do with Kaka'ako makai is a really hard question," said Mitch D'Olier, president and chief executive officer of Victoria Ward Ltd., a large private landowner in Kaka'ako with extensive development just mauka of the state's waterfront land. "Everybody agrees it's a special place and no matter what the idea is, someone will not like it."

The 670-acre stretch of land between downtown Honolulu and Waikiki known as Kaka'ako has been under redevelopment by the state since 1976, and in that time any number of plans for the area have fallen apart for one reason or another.

Once primarily an industrial section of town that was home to businesses as large as Honolulu Iron Works and as small as one-room auto-repair shops and plate lunch kitchens, Kaka'ako has been gradually going upscale.

But the pace of change has been slowed by a tangled skein of factors that include state restrictions on development in the area, Hawai'i's decade-long economic slump, and disagreement by a variety of competing interests about the best features for Kaka'ako's new face.

In the latest vision by state officials, including Gov. Ben Cayetano, the university's new medical school and biomedical research center would be the catalyst for redevelopment of Kaka'ako makai — 200 acres of state land bounded by Fort Armstrong, Ala Moana Boulevard, Kewalo Basin and the ocean.

Other elements of the state's Kakaako Makai Area Plan, such as three museums, also have a scientific education focus.

But while medicine, science and high-tech are at the heart of the plan, state officials also envision the presence of a broad variety of small businesses that would support the research center, education and museum activities.

And the planned Kewalo Basin shops and restaurants would draw their customers from both workers and visitors in the Kaka'ako makai area.

Dobelle has not ruled out the Kaka'ako site. But last week he said he had serious concerns about the choice, including the addition of some 1,500 cars a day to rush-hour traffic on already crowded Ala Moana Boulevard and the potential biological hazards that could result from conducting biomedical research in a tsunami zone.

"It seems to me that (Kaka'ako) was a site selected perhaps as much for the desire to develop a piece of property after 20 years of not having it succeed at least as much as a location for the University of Hawai'i medical school," Dobelle said in an interview last week. "Given that, I asked the governor if that's where it has to be, to which he replied, 'You have to make the best decision you can for the university,' which has allowed me the past several weeks to look at other sites."

Critical mass

In an interview last week, Cayetano said Dobelle's review was appropriate.

"Although the previous (university) administration supported Kaka'ako, I think for himself he has to be satisfied that it's the best place for the medical school and the university," the governor said.

Government and community leaders said last week that, while Adtech's decision to pull out of Kaka'ako was disappointing, it was not the devastating blow that the loss of the medical center would be.

"I think Adtech is a setback, but it's not surprising because of the condition of the high-tech industry right now," Cayetano said. "But if Adtech pulls out, then what happens is the property that Adtech was interested in becomes available for the biotech park ... Instead of high-tech, maybe we have biotech. We need to see how we come out on the medical school."

Jan Yokota, executive director of the state agency that oversees development in Kaka'ako, described the biomedical research center as "probably the most important development project within the makai area." Losing it would be "a problem," she said.

"The thought is that having the biomedical research center here would create a sufficient amount of critical mass to spur a new industry for Hawai'i — the biotech industry — as well as contribute to the redevelopment of Kaka'ako," said Yokota, who directs the Hawaii Community Development Authority.

Making improvements

Kaka'ako makai is home largely to a variety of industrial tenants such as a cargo container area and a food distribution center. It is also the site of the popular Kakaako Waterfront Park and an extension to Ala Moana Park — about 36 acres of open space developed by the HCDA.

That open space would be the centerpiece of any future development plans, Yokota said. The Children's Discovery Center — one of three museums planned for the area — opened in 1998.

Although the future of Kaka'ako makai is unclear, its industrial areas are already being prepared for development. The state is in the process of moving existing businesses and other tenants in the area and putting in roads and electrical, telecommunications and sewer lines, Yokota said.

Asked whether she regarded Dobelle's review of the medical school site as yet another setback in the quest to redevelop Kaka'ako, Yokota said, "This whole area, the makai area, is the last undeveloped urban waterfront area, and so I believe that many people feel we should do it right, and sometimes that takes a while.

"And there are things we can't predict, for example, like Adtech's situation. ... I think it's just part of the process of developing an area."

A few elements of the development are still moving forward: A $35 million science learning center proposed by the Bishop Museum still is "a pretty sure bet," the governor said. Expected to be built in stages, the center would be administered by the Bishop Museum and funded through state, federal and private foundation sources.

But meanwhile a planned $70 million ocean science center, including an aquarium, failed to get money from state legislators this year, so its development "may not be in the cards," said Cayetano, who was a key proponent of the center.

Making things happen

Cayetano lays the blame for the failure of the ocean science center at the feet of legislators who "continue to think small."

But Bev Harbin, a small-business advocate who is president of the Kakaako Improvement Association, said she believes the public failed to understand the importance of the center as a place to educate Hawai'i schoolchildren in the marine sciences.

"I don't think we marketed it as well as we could have," she said. "It became the governor's idea and believe me, it wasn't. It became a political football."

Harbin said she is not content simply to wait for Dobelle to make his decision about the medical school site, expected by Oct. 1.

Harbin, who last year led a community planning group called Eye on Makai, said she will organize a Kaka'ako community meeting in September "to force everybody to come out and start chatting." And she expects to invite Dobelle and Dr. Edwin Cadman, the dean of the University of Hawai'i medical school, among others.

"They've got to get the message that we are very interested in something happening," said Harbin. "I just don't want to sit back and wait for another three years while we go through a major (state) election and the political leaders repositioning themselves. ... Let's keep this boat moving."

At the moment, however, state leaders seem at a loss for clear alternatives to the dreams they have had for Kaka'ako makai.

If neither the medical school nor the ocean science center is a go, the governor said, "Then we need to maybe work with Bishop Museum and maybe make something bigger (with their center), and maybe bring in some other kind of things, some other kind of attractions," he said. "That place will be a place where people can have fun and recreate."

Still, he added, "I think the biomedical research center is what I'm focusing on right now."

D'Olier, of Victoria Ward Ltd., said he was sympathetic to the situation government officials find themselves in with respect to their plans for the area.

"One of the hard things about being the state is that you have to talk about things before they're finished and as a result that creates disappointment," said D'Olier, who has presided over extensive development of Victoria Ward's Kaka'ako property.

"... The reason we at Victoria Ward have a policy of talking in public only about signed, completed deals is that expectations get out of control," he said. "And I look at what's happened to the state as the same thing that would happen in the private sector if they had to talk publicly about all of their transactions. Because you have to try a lot of them to get something to work."

Reach Susan Hooper at shooper@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8064.