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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Harbor development stalls over parking disagreement

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

A disagreement over parking has been added to a dispute between a Texas developer and a state agency trying to redevelop public land at Honolulu Harbor, providing another troubling twist to the nearly five-year-old plan envisioned for piers 5 and 6.

At issue is whether Ken Hughes of Dallas-based Hughes Development LP must cure a parking shortage at nearby Aloha Tower Marketplace as part of his planned condominium, hotel and retail project called Pacific Quay.

The parking disagreement follows an impasse the developer and the state Aloha Tower Development Corp. hit in August over how much Hughes should pay to lease the property for 65 years.

Hughes has offered a one-time $10.5 million payment for the lease, while the ATDC determined the lease payment should be $58 million — a difference of $47.5 million.

Yesterday, Hughes submitted a claim to have the rent and parking disputes resolved by an arbitration panel as provided for under a preliminary development agreement.

The two issues have emerged as sticking points in negotiations over detailed development terms necessary for both sides to move ahead with the ambitious project, which began with the agency issuing a request for development proposals in 2002.

In the proposal request, the agency stated that a developer interested in building on the piers 5 and 6 site would have to provide at least 750 parking stalls for primary use by Aloha Tower Marketplace, a retail complex developed on state land in the early 1990s.

The marketplace was the only piece completed of a larger failed private redevelopment plan for piers 5 to 14. Because other phases of the project were never built, the retail complex has suffered from a parking shortage that has hurt business, and the piers 5 and 6 area provides about 300 stalls for marketplace parking under an agreement with the state.

But Hughes in his arbitration claim said none of the preliminary development agreements he signed suggested that he would finance and build parking for Aloha Tower Marketplace.

Hughes as early as 2003 cited the Aloha Tower Marketplace parking requirement as a "fatal flaw" in the state's development scenario, and suggested an alternate plan to help the state provide such parking at piers 10 and 11.

The piers 10 and 11 part of Hughes' expanded proposal wasn't approved, along with other ideas for removing a nearby Hawaiian Electric Co. power plant and creating a Downtown bypass tunnel under Nimitz Highway.

Instead, the state agency last year gave Hughes tentative approval to move ahead with plans for piers 5 and 6 entailing development of 300 condos, retail and restaurant space, 850 parking stalls and a public promenade around the water's edge.

Although about 500 of the 850 parking stalls were described by the developer as public parking, Hughes in his arbitration claim said his proposal didn't dedicate spaces to Aloha Tower.

"There was never any discussion concerning any obligation on the part of Hughes to solve the Market Place parking situation," the claim by Hughes said.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.