Local developer Peter Savio plans to renovate the Mo'ili'ili retail plaza Puck's Alley and possibly add several hundred dorm rooms above the complex at University Avenue and South King Street near the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus.

Savio said he reached an agreement to purchase the center's lease from James K.Y. Wong, who developed Puck's Alley on land leased from Kamehameha Schools and The Malulani Group (formerly known as Magoon Bros. Ltd.).

The purchase price was not disclosed. Savio said it was too early to estimate costs for renovating the two-story complex and building the dorms.

The plan would upgrade the two-story complex, which opened in 1973 as a youth-oriented retail center with about 40 tenants, and create much-needed rental housing for UH students.

A four-story addition with about 125 rooms has been designed atop the two-story building, Savio said. Another roughly 250 rooms rising six stories is possible on the parking lot behind the center.

Adding the dorms is contingent upon the two landowners agreeing to extend their Puck's Alley leases, which expire in 15 to 20 years. The extension is needed, Savio said, to provide time for the dorm investment to pay off.

If an extension cannot be negotiated, Savio said he will renovate the center and continue operating it with existing tenants if they want to remain.

"We have no plans to kick tenants out," he said. "It works as a shopping center now ... but it needs to be refreshed and modernized. I think it would improve Mo'ili'ili, and help to re-establish it as a shopping community."

Kamehameha Schools, which has studied redevelopment of its land in Mo'ili'ili, did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.

Savio said he's interested in developing another dorm building on a parcel adjacent to Puck's Alley that used to house a gas station and is also owned by Kamehameha Schools.

A Malulani official said the company was not in the position to comment on Savio's proposal because it has not been consulted about a lease extension or development plans.

Savio, who built his real estate development career on acquiring rental apartment buildings and reselling them by the unit as condominiums, has focused recently on student housing.

The developer said he has an agreement to build a dorm on a 30,000-square-foot property in Makiki owned by a private landowner, and has a contract to buy a 73-room Waikiki hotel that he plans to convert into student housing.

Texas-based Century Campus Housing Management has agreed to manage Savio student housing projects, including an existing 192-bed facility owned by Savio and investors near UH-Manoa. Another Savio project to be managed by Century is a 250-unit apartment building in Waikiki.

UH has its own plan to add 1,700 dorm beds by 2009 under an agreement with another Texas-based firm, American Campus Communities, to rebuild three dorms on the Manoa campus.