Trade center proposed
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
A Hawai'i automobile dealer and real estate firm are proposing to develop a $100 million office high-rise next to Blaisdell Center that would bear the World Trade Center name as part of an ambitious project that would make use of the state's World Trade Center franchise.
The state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism is expected to sign an agreement today with Wholesale Motors in association with CB Richard Ellis Hawai'i Inc. to operate the franchise for three years with an option to purchase the license.
During that time, the companies would work on building the office tower as part of a bigger mixed-use project on the mauka-'ewa corner of Ward Avenue and Kapi'olani Boulevard, according to people familiar with the deal.
Department officials last week said it would be premature to talk about the franchise arrangement. A CB Richard Ellis official declined comment, as did Joe Nicolai, president of Wholesale Motors. Details of the agreement are expected to be announced today.
Nicolai, who sells Lamborghini, Lotus and Maserati automobiles, acquired the 2.4-acre property two years ago. In the early 1990s, the site had been envisioned as a luxury condominium project known as Symphony Park.
Nicolai has considered the property, now a paved lot used for parking, for residential, retail, restaurant and automobile dealership uses — some or all of which conceivably could be part of the World Trade Center complex.
Overcoming the tragic association with the Sept. 11 attacks could pose some challenges for the project. But if successful, the project may help facilitate international business in Hawai'i and diversify the state's economy.
Jim Reis, regional coordinator for North American trade centers, said that despite Sept. 11, the World Trade Center name remains attractive.
"The conclusion everyone has come to is the name still has tremendous value," he said. "The target was not the World Trade Center or the World Trade Center name, but those two big buildings in New York."
Rich Johnson, a spokesman for the World Trade Center Seattle, said business at center events and its restaurant have picked up since Sept. 11. "It's kind of strange," he said. "I guess it was kind of a rallying."
Many Hawai'i business organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i, have long been proponents of establishing a World Trade Center in the state.
"It is something needed as a catalyst for diversification of the economy," said Charlotte Vick, chairwoman of the Hawai'i Pacific Export Council. "It presents a tremendous opportunity for us."
Robert Murphy, director of the U.S. Commerce Department's Honolulu Export Assistance Center, said a World Trade Center in Hawai'i would present opportunities for greater trade, such as exporting tourism services or serving as a distribution hub for materials from Asia and America used in manufacturing.
"Hawai'i's location (and communications infrastructure) is so paramount for this business exchange between Asia and North and South America," he said.
The idea of a World Trade Center in Hawai'i has been considered over the past 25 years at various sites, including Aloha Tower, downtown office buildings, the airport and Hawai'i Convention Center.
The concept concentrates providers of global business information and services in a building, facilitating a kind of United Nations of commerce.
About 300 World Trade Centers exist in about 100 countries — all part of the World Trade Centers Association formed in 1970 based on pioneering centers in New York, Tokyo, New Orleans and Houston.
Many centers operate by leasing office space to member businesses, though there are other formats.
For instance, the World Trade Center Denver is a nonprofit partnership between local business community members, a building owner and state college. In Cleveland, the center is an arm of the Chamber of Commerce and is financed by economic development organizations. Baltimore's center operates as an educational organization with significant financial backing from the area's port authority.
The state bought its World Trade license in 1993 for about $100,000, but has kept the franchise largely inactive. At least twice in the past several years the state has sought to assign the center license, once to electronics giant Uniden Corp., but contract conditions and a decade-long depressed business environment resulted in no viable offers.
Last July, the state again issued a request for proposals to use the license, and at least five interested parties, including the CB/Wholesale Motors team, responded.
