Waikiki will benefit from new Hilton tower
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
It started to happen last Wednesday. Tourists in Waikiki stopped at the corner of Kalia Road and Ala Moana to pose for pictures. They smiled in front of three bronze statues of kahiko hula dancers set amid a backdrop of waterfalls. Behind them was the new Kalia Tower.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
It is a spot that Peter Schall, general manager of Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa, believes has already become a tourist magnet, and which he expects to grow stronger with exhibits and activities at Bishop Museum, a medical wellness center, and a spa that are all scheduled to open this summer in the tower.
Hilton's investment in the Kalia Tower, whose lobby is shown above, represents a significant investment in Waikiki.
Kalia is the latest development in Waikiki, which is slowly being regenerated after years of general stagnation. Recent improvements include the Kuhio Beach renovation, historical place markers, and retail projects including DFS Hawai'i's $65 million shopping plaza expansion with a walk-through aquarium and live entertainment, a new 20,000-square-foot Hilo Hattie store and the Honu Group's $140 million luxury retail complex.
But the tower is perhaps the broadest development to date, and is expected to take the revitalization of the state's primary visitor destination to the next level.
"This is a $100 million kicker to the reinvestment campaign of Waikiki," says Robert Fishman, executive director of the state's Hawai'i Tourism Authority.
Waikiki certainly stands to benefit from the draw that the new attractions and accommodations will have in luring more tourists and their pocketbooks, analysts say.
"The marketplace helps drive reinvestment, but Kalia will intensify marketplace pressure," said Murray Towill, president of the Hawai'i Hotel Association.
Towill added that Hilton building a new tower not only pressures other hotel operators to upgrade, but encourages them psychologically by showing Hilton has confidence in the market.
"It sends a really positive signal that Hilton is willing to invest in Waikiki," he said.
Waikiki hotels that already have planned renovations include the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort, Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki and Hawaiian Waikiki Beach Hotel. Industry experts say there will be more.
Overall, Kalia's 453 rooms will add about 1 percent to the total room count in Waikiki.
"Businesses today compete within the marketplace, and depending on your product you get a bigger marketshare or smaller marketshare," Schall says. "But if the whole market is not good, you are not going to do well.
"If Hawai'i is successful, we will be successful. We go as Waikiki goes."
Andrew Gomes can be reached by phone at 525-8065, or by e-mail at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.
