Owner Kyo-ya now has the support of the local neighborhood association and numerous Waikiki business groups to replace an aging 8-story hotel wing fronting Waikiki Beach with a new 26-story tower, although it will require variances from height, building setback, and shoreline encroachment laws established in 1976:
The Moana Surfrider Hotel's Diamond Head wing slated for demolition.
(photo: Shelly Bonoan)
Ka halekui o Waikiki
A beachfront landmark wants to raise the roof with its new addition
by Curt Sanburn
Honolulu Weekly
July 7, 2010
Perhaps you’ve seen those sleek and ubiquitous commericals airing during local TV newscasts lately? The ads trumpet Waikiki’s future while showing marvelous architectural drawings, then vaguely asking for your support. What those ads are about
: plans are afoot to demolish an eight-story hotel on the beach at Waikiki and replace it with a 26-story condo/hotel tower. This summer, the project’s sponsors are asking the Honolulu City Council to grant four different exemptions to the law regarding building height, density and shoreline setback.
The stakes are high. The beach tower is a relatively small but important part of hotel owner Kyo-ya’s $700 million redevelopment plan for its Princess Kaiulani and Moana Surfrider properties in the heart of Waikiki. Located at the spot where Kalakaua Ave.’s canyon of high-rises opens up to Kuhio Beach Park, the redevelopment site has been dubbed “Ka Piko Waikiki” by Kyo-ya, the longtime hotel owner and leaseholder of several former royal properties owned by Kamehameha Schools. Since 2004, Kyo-ya has been controlled by New York-based Cerberus Capital Management, one of the world’s largest private investment firms.
The Diamond Head Tower, as it’s called, would be squeezed into the last private lot along the beach, the narrow lot adjacent to Kuhio Beach Park currently occupied by the 52-year-old, 141-room Diamond Head wing of the Moana Surfrider Hotel. The lot is so narrow, in fact, that
Kyo-ya is asking for a variance to the state’s 40-foot waterfront setback law in order to accommodate a beachfront pool. About 40 private residences would occupy the higher floors in the tower, stacked atop 185 hotel rooms that reportedly might be marketed and managed as a W Hotel. There’s only one catch: The tower is a direct challenge to well-established city law...
To read more: http://honoluluweekly.com/cover/2010...kui-o-waikiki/