EDITORIAL
Aloha Tower troubles a chance to think big

The redevelopment of the Aloha Tower area is a sparkling idea that somehow never has worked the way everyone hoped it would.

Now, the partnership that owns the shopping complex says it can recover and pay its debts if it gets some serious help from the state, which is its landlord. What it wants is a reduction in lease rent and the provision of extra parking so that it can attract more tenants and customers.

The state should treat this plea for help seriously. A thriving Aloha Tower marketplace would be a major asset to the Honolulu waterfront and a strong contributor to the overall mix of attractions offered to our visitors.

In fact, if the Marketplace were booming, it would undoubtedly stimulate more quality development along the long-neglected Honolulu harborfront.

But as it looks for ways to help, the state must think creatively. A reduction in lease rent, at least temporarily, might help, but it would do little to improve underlying structural problems.

One of the biggest problems, apparently, is parking. There is relatively little close-in parking to the Aloha Tower complex, which is seen as a barrier to visitor traffic. Major tenants have shied away because they don't see the foot traffic that abundant parking would provide.

The problem is that building a major parking structure anywhere near the tower would be a step backward in the vital longterm effort to open up the harborfront to Honolulu. It was a major victory when a second-story parking structure and ramp was removed from the front of the Aloha Tower complex as part of the redevelopment scheme.

Most of the parking proposals that have been offered, including an ill-considered plan to build a garage where the tree-shaded Irwin Park now sits, would have the complex once again "turn its back" on the city behind it.

We're not engineers, urban planners or developers. But our thought is that the best long-term hope for the Aloha Tower complex is to further integrate it with broader redevelopment and renewal of the waterfront.

For instance, it might be possible to redevelop the ship terminal along pier 10 to provide more parking and, at the same time, open additional vistas to the harbor on that side of the complex. Further afield, the state might want to take a look at Fort Armstrong, just a stone's throw away across the harbor.

Over time, it might make sense to relocate the Foreign Trade Zone, which is the primary occupant of Fort Armstrong today, to a site closer to the airport with perhaps a secondary location near Barbers Point Deep Draft Harbor.

This would open up a major piece of harborfront property for recreational use, commercial and — yes — parking. It would help create a critical mass that would in turn lift the prospects of Aloha Tower.

Visitors who parked at the Fort Armstrong site could easily get to Aloha Tower on "jitney" ferry boats that could make the short harbor crossing in minutes.

The existing Kaka'ako Waterfront Park could be expanded further along the oceanfront. One potential use for the Trade Zone site would be a major farmer's market complex similar to the enormously successful markets at Pike Place in Seattle, Granville Island in Vancouver, B.C., and elsewhere.

These markets, with their produce, flowers, street musicians, craft stores and more are magnets for both local residents and visitors.

An architectural style for the complex has already been set by the elegant Immigration and Naturalization Service building nearby.

And, of course, there is still the potential for a world-class architectural statement — a performing arts or other such complex — at the Diamond Head end of the Kewalo Peninsula.

Honolulu's harborfront is a jewel that was for years ignored and then developed in a piecemeal basis.

The current troubles of the Aloha Tower Marketplace should be seen not as a dilemma, but as an opportunity to think big and create something that will benefit us all.