Architects push 35-story tower for downtown Honolulu
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
A partnership led by two Hawai'i architects is seeking to advance a 35-story residential/office high-rise project in downtown Honolulu by soliciting a development partner or selling the parcel on which it is planned.
Jim Hayes rendering
1199 Associates, headed by David Stringer and Terry Tusher of Honolulu-based Stringer Tusher Architects, has contracted local real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Hawai'i Inc. to market the development plans and/or the /-acre site at 1199 Bishop St.
This is an artist's rendering of a 35-story residential/office high-rise building envisioned for 1199 Bishop St. by a partnership led by two Hawai'i architects.
Stringer Tusher Architects is the designer of several high-rises, including the downtown office tower Alakea Plaza and the Mauna Luan, a Hawai'i Kai residential high-rise. The firm also designed the renovated Kapi'olani Park Bandstand.
Plans for 1199 Bishop, which have preliminary approval from the building department, call for a single 35-story tower with 54 units and seven floors of parking. Existing zoning allows for a combination of residential and office use. Development cost is estimated between $15 million and $25 million.
1199 Associates bought the property on the corner of Beretania and Bishop streets for $2 million in 1995. The site had been a gas station, but is now a 30-stall parking lot.
Tusher said the partnership acquired the property as an investment, not to develop it. A design plan was created to enhance the value of the property and facilitate a sale and development.
"Obviously we would love to see the work that's already been done put into the project, but if somebody wants to do something else that's OK," he said.
No asking price has been set for the property and/or development plans. Tusher said the partnership felt market timing is good for residential and office property. "It seems to be a very bullish situation right now despite what the stock market is doing," he said.
Andres Albano Jr., vice president of development consulting for site broker CB Richard Ellis, said buyer interest is growing in the central business district's residential and office tower markets.
Last month, Dallas-based apartment development firm JPI agreed to purchase a nearly 1-acre parcel at 800 Nu'uanu Ave. from Bank of Hawai'i for about $8 million. It plans to build an estimated $75 million, 276-unit luxury rental apartment tower that could break ground late this year.
Investors interested in residential development are also pursuing a 2-acre parcel adjacent to 'A'ala Park at Nimitz Highway, King Street and Iwilei Road put on the market in January for $10.5 million.
Nauru Phosphate Royalties (Honolulu) Development Inc. plans to build a high-rise similar to its $110 million Hawaiki Tower on Pi'ikoi Street later this year on a site bounded by Ala Moana Boulevard and Pi'ikoi and Waimanu streets.
1199 Bishop, according to Albano, is the only downtown site ready for office development, which is also becoming a more attractive market for prospective developers.
Downtown office rents are tightening as vacancies hover around 11.5 percent. Albano projects the vacancy rate will fall to less than 10 percent by end of the year and continue to drop if nothing is built.
"The market is turning in the right direction," he said.
