New Kalia Tower a boost for Waikiki

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

More than 1,000 people have toiled for nearly two years to turn thousands of tons of steel and a decade worth of planning into the new Kalia Tower at Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa in Waikiiki.

The 453-room tower, which opened last week and is the first commercial hotel built in Waikiki in more than a decade, completes the original vision of the late industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, who started the 20-acre vacation village in 1954 with the idea that it would one day be a 3,000-room resort.

With the opening of Kalia, the resort now has 2,998 rooms and has become the largest of Hilton's 1,800 properties around the world.

Conceived in 1989, Kalia has waited out visitor industry slumps that delayed construction in both the early and late 1990s, overcome major cost overruns, and seen various design changes. Now, with its completion, its impact could have far-reaching consequences for Hawai'i's $10 billion tourism industry and its flagship destination of Waikiiki.

Analysts say the tower's business services will help Hawai'i draw even more of the convention travel market, and its new Bishop Museum, spa and health center will help draw more of the leisure market.

The tower also will have another effect: putting pressure on competing hotels to participate in a renewal of Waikiki.

"If you don't stay with the competition, you fall behind," said Joseph Toy, president of Honolulu-based tourism consultancy Hospitality Advisors LLC. "Kalia Tower is really the heart of repositioning of Waikiki that is under way now."

The process of bringing the tower to life, including delays, would take roughly 12 years — or more than 4,000 days.