Posted at 11:35 a.m., Monday, July 9, 2001

Outrigger to spend $300M in making Waikiki redevelopment

By Michele Kayal
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Waikiki Beach Walk project in the Lewers Street area calls for open spaces, retail venues and a new hotel. Courtesy Outrigger Enterprices

Hawai'i's largest local hotel company announced today a $300 million, multi-year project to redevelop 7.9 acres in the heart of Waikiki.

Outrigger Enterprises Inc. said redevelopment of its property — bordered by Saratoga, Lewers and Kalia streets — will include demolition of six properties and will be done in two phases. The first phase will start in 2003.

The $130 million first phase will involve demolishing three properties, the Edgewater Lanais, Ohana Coral Seas and Ohana Edgewater, and replacing it with retail. Construction is expected to last 15 to 18 months. The first phase also includes $75 million for redevelopment of retail in the area.

The $170 million second phase is scheduled to start in 2006, and will include demolition of three other hotels: the Ohana Reef Lanais, the Ohana Royal Islander and the Malihini Hotel. They will be replaced by an 890-room hotel.

Outrigger has 3,100 rooms in the area. When redevelopment is complete, the company expects to have 3,300 rooms.

The company said all employees affected by the redevelopment will be transferred to other Ohana and Outrigger hotels as positions open. No employees are expected to lose their jobs, company officials said, and any reductions will be handled through attrition.

The massive renovation project, known as Waikiki Beach Walk, will transform the stifling and overdeveloped Lewers Street area into a panoply of open spaces, pedestrian thoroughfares, retail and entertainment venues, and new hotel construction.

The Outrigger project has been a half-decade in the making, and would be the latest development in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of change that over the past two years has begun remaking Waikiki into a sleeker, more competitive visitor destination.

Outrigger, which started in Waikiki, recently has focused its attention on expansion in the Pacific. Its renewed focus on Hawai'i's most famous visitor destination marks a return to the company's roots and brought accolades from tourism executives.

Though it has more than half of all the rooms in the state, Waikiki has lost ground to the Neighbor Islands and other destinations in the past five years.

The development plans call for razing the area's short, squat buildings virtually from property line to property line, a person familiar with the project said. The move would make way for open-air gathering spaces, tropical foliage, water features, shopping opportunities and pedestrian walkways.