HONOLULU | 690 Pohukaina | FT | FLOORS | Two Towers

[Roadcruiser1]

I found this today. I couldn't find a thread for it so I created one. Pretty interesting if you ask me. It's old but it fits in.

Kakaako project would include Hawaii’s tallest building
By Janis L. Magin, Managing Editor of Digital Content
Date: Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The state plans to issue a request for proposals in January for a developer to build two residential towers in Honolulu’s Kakaako neighborhood, one of which would be the tallest building in Hawaii.

The plans for 690 Pohukaina call for one tower with 300 affordable for-sale units and a second tower with 500 market-priced units. The second tower would be 650 feet high, nearly 250 feet taller than the First Hawaiian Center.

The project is slated for a parcel at 690 Pohukaina St., adjacent to developer Stanford Carr’s planned Halekauwila Place project, which is scheduled to break ground next year on 204 affordable rentals.

The Halekauwila Place project’s design has been integrated into the 690 Pohukaina conceptual plan since the two projects abut each other, said Anthony Ching, executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency that has jurisdiction over and administers zoning regulations for the Kakaako district.

The increased height for the market-priced residential tower — Honolulu has a 400-foot height limit — would come out of the rules for transit-oriented development, which are being revised to increase density in anticipation of Honolulu’s rail transit project, Ching said.

The agency estimates that the project will mean $500 million for the state economy over seven years and create 500 construction jobs and 1,000 more indirect jobs.

“This development will provide housing choices and opportunities for a variety of people and families,” Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in a statement. “But the first thing 690 Pohukaina does is create jobs in construction and business sectors.”

The request for proposal will require a developer to design, build and finance the two residential buildings, as well as a commercial and civic building in between that will house retail and restaurant businesses, a business innovation incubation space and offices for the state’s library system and Friends of the Library, which currently occupies a building on the site, Ching said.

The HCDA likely would choose a developer by the end of 2012, and construction of the two residential towers, considered the second phase of the project after the Halekauwila rentals, likely would start in 2015 or 2016 with completion in the summer of 2019, Ching said.

The Halekauwila rentals will be completed by early 2015, he said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/n...is.html?page=2

[Eidolon]

Nice to see Hawaii getting some height.

[plinko]

So somebody took the Google Earth model of the Gas Company Tower in LA, stretched it, put it on a blog, and now it's a legit proposal?

WTF?

[Roadcruiser1]

Originally Posted by plinko

So somebody took the Google Earth model of the Gas Company Tower in LA, stretched it, put it on a blog, and now it's a legit proposal?

WTF?

There are multiple news article on this. According to what I found online the person that is designing this building designed the building in LA too. I guess that is why they look the same.

[Zapatan]

It does look like someone stretched the gas company tower, but I like it, Hawaii needs a 200 meter building! Honolulu has a lot of highrises but no real skyscrapers, hope it's built!

[Dylan Leblanc]

I think the building in the rendering is just a place holder to show what a 200 meter would look like, and is not an indication of the actual design.

[Roadcruiser1]

Originally Posted by Dylan Leblanc

I think the building in the rendering is just a place holder to show what a 200 meter would look like, and is not an indication of the actual design.

Most websites show that as the design for the building. I highly doubt that is a rendering.

[SD_Phil]

Originally Posted by plinko

So somebody took the Google Earth model of the Gas Company Tower in LA, stretched it, put it on a blog, and now it's a legit proposal?

WTF?

My first thought. If it really is the proposal...then yeah it's entirely derivative. But still, it's not a bad design (it wasn't the first time around either) though I don't like the stretching.

[plinko]

Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1

There are multiple news article on this. According to what I found online the person that is designing this building designed the building in LA too. I guess that is why they look the same.

Richard Keating or SOM? In either case I find it hard to believe that the design would be a derivative version of a 20+ year old tower designed for a hillside site and a specific tenant.

Something is amiss.

Source on the architect?

Methinks maybe some newspaper intern took a building from Google Earth to make a diagram of what it would look like size-wise and it got published.

*EDIT*
So I was close...

According to the article from Bizjournals, this is a state redevelopment agency project that hasn't even gone out for RFP yet. So in this case as of right now, THERE IS NO DEVELOPER, NO ARCHITECT, NO DESIGN, just an idea. There will be if the state can make a development partnership work out money-wise, but until then this is little more than pie-in-the-sky.

So change 'newspaper intern' to 'state redevelopment agency intern' who is responsible for the hack-job.

[Yackemflaber69]

any news

[Roadcruiser1]

I haven't updated this in a long time, but I found out that 8 months ago they picked Forest City & Ratner Architects for this project. Their proposal looks like this.

http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/2...rendering3.jpg



This was the other proposal from a land lease company that wasn't chosen..........

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5...gnettespag.jpg

[animatedmartian]

That first one looks awesomely futuristic. The 2nd one doesn't look half bad either.

[chris08876]

Project to build tallest building in Hawaii still in limbo

It’s been about a year since the developer of the 690 Pohukaina mixed-use project in Kakaako, which would be Hawaii’s tallest building at 650 feet, made any major moves.

In May 2013, Forest City Hawaii, which had been selected by the Hawaii Community Development Authority to develop the parcel on Pohukaina Street, announced that it had chosen Honolulu’s Nordic PCL Construction Inc. as the general contractor for the $500 million project. Additionally, Honolulu-based Ben Woo Architects LLC was chosen as its local architecture firm for the 800-unit rental project, which will include affordable and market-rate units.
Forest City Hawaii President Jon Wallenstrom has not returned several messages left by PBN.

But the HCDA, which oversees the developer of the growing Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako, told PBN, through a spokeswoman, that it has not yet received an application from Forest City for a development permit for the project.

Lindsey Doi, spokeswoman for the state agency, said that last she heard was that the developer was still working out financing and other issues.
What’s more, is that given the passage this year of House Bill 1866(Act 61), which limits building heights in Kakaako to no higher than 418 feet, the project is still in the discussion phase between the state agency and the developer.

The 690 Pohukaina project was one of the first residential condominium projects announced at the start of the current Kakaako condo boom.

=============================
JULY 24, 2014
http://kakaakoproperties.com/project...i-still-limbo/

[chris08876]

Forest City's plans for Kakaako's 690 Pohukaina may include a school

Forest City's $500 million 690 Pohukaina mixed-use project in Honolulu's Kakaako neighborhood, one of the first projects out of the gate at the start of the current condominium boom, could include a public elementary school, the head of the state agency overseeing the redevelopment of the area told PBN.
Anthony Ching, executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, recently told PBN that the 690 Pohukaina project will include a mix of uses, including market-rate rentals, below market-rate rentals — and perhaps an educational component.

Ching declined to go more into detail regarding a school site at 690 Pohukaina, although the Kakaako area, which will gain thousands of new residents in at least a dozen or so condos being built in the coming years, will likely need more schools.

Seagulls Schools plans to build a new preschool campus in Kakaako near the intersection of Kelikoi and Cooke streets that may include kindergarten through third grade classes as well, as first reported by PBN. The "Kakaako First School" is expected to start construction in the middle of this year.
Linda Schatz, development manager for Forest City, recently told PBN that its 690 Pohukaina project, which at one time was to include the state's tallest building at 650 feet but will top out at 418 feet according to local laws, is still in the discussion phase with the HCDA.

===============================
Jan 14, 2015
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/b...kaina-may.html

[chris08876]

Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/miniviews/16102611417/

[Urbannizer]

Update from March:

Forest City's 690 Pohukaina mixed-use project put on hold, regulators rule

Forest City’s long-delayed 690 Pohukaina mixed-use project in Kakaako, which includes a new $40 million public elementary school in its latest plan, has been sent back to the drawing board by state regulators who ruled that the project’s changes were just too hefty.

Last month, Forest City presented its newest plan to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency regulating development in Kakaako. That plan included two towers, one with about 400 rental units — about half of what had been originally proposed — and another tower with four floors that would be used for a state Department of Education school.