Posted on: Tuesday, July 10, 2001

Editorial
Waikiki: Outrigger's long-awaited upgrade

More than once over the last several years, the Outrigger hotel chain was rumored to be on the brink of announcing what it revealed yesterday: a major redevelopment of its Waikiki properties in the Lewers Street area.

The oldest and, many would agree, most rundown end of Waikiki is long overdue for the kinds of upgrades that have been announced.

According to staff writer Michele Kayal, the development plan calls for razing the area's short, squat buildings "virtually from property line to property line," making way for "open-air gathering spaces, tropical foliage, water features, shopping opportunities and pedestrian walkways."

This sounds just like what the doctor ordered for this aging end of Waikiki. As plans move forward, city planners must work closely with the Outrigger company to ensure these plans become reality.

Outrigger says it will perform an environmental impact statement for its redevelopment. That statement should reflect the impact of these plans on the whole of Waikiki, not just on the immediate environment. To be successful, this effort must be a model for a brighter, more pedestrian-friendly, less urban Waikiki.

The long delay in Outrigger's movement on this redevelopment project reflects a prolonged economic malaise in Hawai'i that put a number of projects on hold or down the drain. Indeed, Outrigger had turned its ambitions to expansion elsewhere in the Pacific and on the Neighbor Islands.

That Outrigger seems ready to once again focus on its home base seems a reflection on a return to at least modest economic growth for the state and a renewed role in that growth for Waikiki.