In a 6-0 vote, the Hawaii Community Development Authority has given the Howard Hughes Corporation approval to build a moderate-priced condominium tower at 404 Ward Avenue. This building, which has no official name yet, will have a total of 424 units. Under its master plan, the Hughes Corp. would be required to make 20% of its 4,300 planned Kakaako residential units moderately priced. This means that only residents who earn between 100 percent to 140 percent of the median income for Honolulu county would be able to purchase those units. The 404 Ward Avenue property would satisfy approximately half of that requirement. Howard Hughes senior vice president in Hawaii, David Striph, stated, "We are obviously very happy with the decision."
The Hughes Corp requested and was granted several variances for this project. The first was a request to build the 404 Ward Avenue tower only 120 feet away from Kauhale Kakaako, an affordable rental building. Zoning requirements previously required 300 feet in between the broad sides of a tower. The second request was that the parking garage height would be raised to 75 feet to help create a smaller footprint of the building and to better accommodate ground-floor retail stores. The Hawaii Community Development Authority has agreed to these items, provided that the Hughes Corp. includes a landscaped screen fronting the parking garage.
The Howard Hughes Corp has two additional towers being proposed to the Hawaii Community Development Authority at this time. One of them will be located on the site of the current Pier 1 Imports store at 1108 Auahi Street. This building would have an estimated 318 units. The second will be located at 1140 Ala Moana, across from the Ward movie theaters. This building would have 177 units and will be marketed as an ultra-luxury building with spectacular, direct ocean views. The HDCA will hold additional public hearings for these two project and will vote on their approval on August 21, 2013
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 7-18-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
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