Tall & Urban News

Two towers with 1,243 homes will be in the next phase of Ward Village, according to the developer of the master planned community in Kakaako.

The towers, which would be the eighth and ninth to rise in the area formerly known as Ward Centers, are projected for construction in about two years, and would be part of a more than US$1 billion new phase that also includes 90,000 square feet (8,361 square meters) of additional public park space, an elevated walkway over Ala Moana Boulevard and relocating the Ward Avenue and Auahi Street intersection.

Howard Hughes Corp., the developer of Ward Village, presented a preview of the plan Wednesday to board members of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency regulating development in Kakaako.

“Where we stand today is at a bit of a tipping point where we have a maturing district,” Doug Johnstone, Hawaii regional president for Texas-based Hughes Corp., told the board. “Where we go from incremental projects that we have thus far, to creating a real synergy within the master plan.”

Ward Village is envisioned to become a dense urban community with 16 towers and up to 4,500 homes, public parks and 1 million square feet (92,903 square meters) of retail on 60 acres (36 hectares).

An initial tower, the ultra- luxury Waiea condominium, was completed in 2016, followed by two more luxury towers, Anaha and Ae‘o, along with the moderate- priced tower Ke Kilohana since then.

The projected timetable for building the two new towers is aligned to coincide with completion of the sixth and seventh towers at Ward Village — Kō‘ula, which is slated to be finished in the third quarter of 2022, and Victoria Place, which is nearing the start of construction and envisioned to be finished at the end of 2022. Another tower under construction at Ward Village, ‘A‘ali‘i, is scheduled for completion at the end of 2021.

A more precise construction schedule for the next two towers will depend on sales, which Hughes Corp. expects to begin sometime between April and June 2021 if HCDA approves project permit applications with detailed plans that have yet to be submitted.

The biggest of the two next planned towers is dubbed Ulana Ward Village, and would feature 697 moderately priced homes that satisfy an HCDA requirement that 20 percent of all new homes at Ward Village be available at prices that meet federal affordability standards for moderate-income households in Honolulu.

Ulana, slated for a block bordered by Auahi, Kamani and Pohukaina streets a block Ewa of Ward Avenue, is envisioned as a tower next to a 30,000-square-foot (2,787 square meters) public park, a 40,000-square-foot (3,716-square-meter) park for Ulana residents, and a separate building with parking for tower residents, retail spaces fronting Pohukaina and a 30,000-square-foot (2,787-square-meter) industrial building that could be for one or more commercial tenants.

The higher-end planned tower is dubbed The Park on Ward, and would feature 546 condos on much of an area fronting Ward Avenue once largely occupied by a Sports Authority store that now includes Wahoo’s, Starbucks, Ba-Le Sandwich Shop and a few other businesses.

This planned tower also would feature ground-floor retail store space on all four sides of the tower, and part of the site will be used to enlarge a public park that will be enhanced and grow by about 20,000 square feet (1,858 square meters) to about 90,000 square feet (8,361 square meters).

“This phase is really exciting for us because, not just are we providing additional mixed-use projects, but we have probably the biggest focus we’ve had to date on parks, on walkability and on creating an economic impact at a time that it’s sorely needed,” Race Randle, Hughes Corp. senior vice president of planning and development, told HCDA’s board at Wednesday’s online meeting.

Developing the former Sports Authority area that includes a corner of Auahi and Ward will allow Hughes Corp. to realign the mauka/Diamond Head corner a bit mauka so that Auahi connects across Ward to a planned extension of Pohukaina. Currently, part of Auahi just Ewa of Ward dead-ends because of a city storage yard. Hughes Corp. said the city is working to unblock this area, but that Pohukaina will be a better thoroughfare. Hughes Corp. owns the segment of Auahi at Ward Village.

Another piece of Ward Village’s next phase is an elevated pedestrian walkway over Ala Moana Boulevard previously discussed publicly. Hughes Corp. said on Wednesday that its projected timetable to begin building the walkway is between 2022 and 2023.

Hughes Corp. partnered with the state Department of Transportation to compete for a federal grant that is providing US$20 million for this project connecting Kewalo Harbor, which Hughes Corp. manages for the state, to a planned makai end of an expanded Victoria Ward Park at Ward Village.

“It’s piece by piece that the neighborhood’s coming together,” Randle said.

For more on this story, go to Star Adviser.