Kapi'olani residential towers OK'd

• Kaka'ako authority names chief

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

KC Rainbow Development's Moana Pacific residential project on Kapi'olani Boulevard will start selling the units next month and begin construction by next fall. Each of the two towers will have 353 residential units and 46 stories. Architects Hawaii

KC Rainbow Development, headed by high-tech entrepreneur Fred Chan, received unanimous approval with one abstention from board members of the Hawai'i Community Development Authority, the state agency overseeing development in Kaka'ako.

The vote followed a presentation of the 706-unit Moana Pacific project, which is scheduled to be built in phases starting with sales next month and the start of construction by next fall of the first 353-unit tower. Project development cost is estimated at around $200 million.

KC Rainbow made a similar presentation to the agency last month in addition to presentations to the Ala Moana-Kaka'ako Neighborhood Board and the Kaka'ako Improvement Association, neither of which opposed the project.

At yesterday's meeting, Eric Crispin, director of the city Department of Planning and Permitting, was the only board member to withhold support.

Crispin voiced concern that Moana Pacific's design didn't fit with the city's goal of making Honolulu's urban core more "livable," because no retail shops are planned at ground level and much of Moana Pacific's landscaped grounds would be atop a five-story recreation deck inaccessible to pedestrians.

But he acknowledged that the project met all design guidelines of the state agency, which supersedes city planning rules in the 670-acre Kaka'ako development district. The project requires no other building approvals.

Chan agreed to consider ways to encourage more pedestrian interaction at the ground level and introduce changes if they would be a cost-effective benefit.

The project may include an 80,000-square-foot light industrial component along Kapi'olani for service-related tenants compatible with residents — such as food catering, furniture making, beauty shop or copy center uses — if there is demand and appropriate tenants can be found. Residential units are likely to range in price from about $500,000 and up.

As part of the development agreement with the state, KC Rainbow is required to contribute $3 million to a public facilities fund administered by the development authority and used to pay for parks and other public improvements in Kaka'ako.

Moana Pacific is the largest of four planned Kaka'ako residential high-rises, two of which — Hokua at the diamondhead end of Victoria Ward Centers, and adjacent Ko'olani off Waimanu Street near Hawaiki and Nauru towers — are under construction.

Chan, through a company called Evershine X, bought the empty 6-acre block bordered by Kapi'olani, Pi'ikoi, Pensacola and Kamaile streets in 1998 for $26 million.

Chan had an idea that the site — a former Rainbow Chevrolet dealership slated for condo development by previous owner Asahi Jyuken — could become a research center, but more recently he changed his plan given demand for residential condos.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.

Kaka'ako authority names chief

Hilton Hotels Corp. executive Dan Dinell yesterday was named executive director of the Hawai'i Community Development Authority, the state agency guiding redevelopment in Kaka'ako.

Dinell will assume the post on Jan. 15. Sandy Pfund, an agency project director, has been serving as interim executive director since June when Jan Yokota left to become director of capital improvements for the University of Hawai'i.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Dinell began his career with Hilton in 1989, and helped develop the company's hotel division operating strategy and business plans for hotel properties. Most recently he was vice president of strategic planning and community affairs with Hilton in Hawai'i. He is the son of Tom Dinell, a planning consultant and emeritus professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Hawai'i.