Out is Anderson's old idea for a 130-foot-high Ferris wheel surrounded by retail shops and restaurants.

The new project's focal point is a nearly 300-foot-high Pacific Rim business trade center made to look like a giant version of the Hawaiian sailing canoe Hokule'a — with residential, office and possibly hotel units in tall, thin buildings designed as "sails" attached above twin canoe-shaped hull structures.

Retail shops, restaurants, a farmers market, underground parking, an outdoor concert venue and space for another developer's aquarium also are part of Anderson's revised plan, which he hopes to publicly present to the state agency controlling development of the area in October.

The proposal — dubbed Hawai'i Pacific Trade Center, The Sails of Hokule'a — includes demolishing and rebuilding Anderson's John Dominis restaurant, as well as previous Anderson ideas for a miniature golf course and carousel.

Anderson's last proposal failed to win support from the state, and he blamed then-Gov. Ben Cayetano for nixing it. Anderson said he believes he has a better chance under Gov. Linda Lingle's administration.

"Hopefully it's going to be accepted," he said. "I'm in love with what we came up with. I think it's gorgeous. I give you my best shot. If it gets rejected, I can live with that."

Anderson also is asking the state to approve him as master developer of several waterfront parcels at the 'ewa edge of Kewalo Basin in Kaka'ako.

Last month, the company negotiating to develop an aquarium and ocean science center in the area teamed with giant retail developer General Growth Properties on a competing proposition.

That plan, headed by Kajima Urban Development, would expand the aquarium and ocean science center plan to also include residential units, retail and entertainment space, a parking structure and possibly a hotel.

Anderson's proposal would incorporate KUD's aquarium and science center.

"I'm looking for a marriage," Anderson said yesterday. "I'm not trying to throw them out."

Anderson, in his written proposal, did challenge a couple of the aspects of KUD's larger plan, including building residential units around a centralized parking structure, and offering space for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as an area anchor tenant.

Anderson questioned the wisdom of housing government operations on valuable waterfront property, and said residential units would be better located away from the core of retail and entertainment activities.

Both the KUD and Anderson proposals, however, are conceptual and subject to refinement.

The Hawai'i Community Development Authority, the state agency overseeing redevelopment of the area, got a copy of Anderson's proposal Monday.

The agency said it could not respond yet because it is in the midst of a 60-day review of KUD's aquarium plan. The authority also has not publicly commented on KUD's larger proposal.

Land makai of Ala Moana between Kewalo Basin and Ho-nolulu Harbor has been the focus of the state's most important redevelopment effort since Aloha Tower Marketplace in the early 1990s. The effort got a boost two years ago when construction began on the University of Hawai'i medical school, which is being built by an affiliate of KUD, a subsidiary of Japan-based construction firm Kajima Corp.

The recent interest from developers follows a decade of difficulty in state efforts to facilitate private development of much of the land because of a weak economy and questionable projects.

One of the biggest controversies involved Anderson's original plan, called Kewalo Pointe.

The $138 million Ferris wheel-anchored project was tentatively selected in 1999 over eight competing plans that included an indoor snowboarding center, high-technology park and several entertainment/shopping ideas.

But after months of sometimes contentious negotiations between Anderson and the development authority, as well as the replacement of two key Kewalo Pointe supporters on the board, agency directors voted 7-2 to reject the project in December 1999.

The board said Anderson underestimated construction costs and inflated revenue projections.

Anderson at the time argued that his project was supported by consultant feasibility studies, and said that if financial lenders were willing to back the project the state shouldn't have rejected it.

Anderson, a former state senator and Republican Party leader, said the plan was rejected as political payback by Cayetano, a Democrat with four officials in his administration on the agency board. Anderson later switched parties and ran for governor as a Democrat in 2002.

Cayetano yesterday said that Anderson's allegations are not worthy of a response.

Five years ago, then-agency executive director Jan Yokota defended the board's decision as one that independently assessed Anderson's market study and agency staff recommendations.

Yesterday Anderson reaffirmed his belief that the rejection was "pure down-and-dirty politics. It was a political decision, and I can live with that."

Anderson, who five years ago vowed not to invest another dollar in Hawai'i under the previous administration, said Lingle's Republican administration gives him more confidence his second attempt will receive fairer review.

Anderson's son Brian Anderson, a Big Island-based real estate developer, also is working on the Kewalo project.

Andy Anderson is the company's managing member. Others on the team include Architects Hawai'i principal Joe Farrell and real-estate consultants Brad Lofgren with CB Richard Ellis in Los Angeles and Yoshi Takagi of Cosmos Australia Pty. Ltd.