Former Kaneohe Ranch CEO D’Olier turns attention to Honolulu’s Kakaako neighborhood
Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News
Former Kaneohe Ranch CEO Mitch D’Olier has turned his attention from the Windward side of Oahu to Honolulu, with his take on the island’s so called “Third City” of Kakaako.
D’Olier, who stepped down from his position as president and CEO of both Kaneohe Ranch and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation — which sold their Hawaii commercial real estate assets that included a majority of Kailua town for $373 million to Alexander & Baldwin — is now the chairman of both boards.
He said that while he does not mind tall buildings in Kakaako, he feels that the area could be planned out better.
“We need to urbanize the city, from Kaimuki to Pearl City,” he said to a group of more than 100 Hawaii commercial real estate stakeholders at the 11th Annual NAIOP Hawaii Real Estate Symposium held Monday at the Hawaii Convention Center in Waikiki, where D’Olier was the keynote speaker. “Think about the rail [transit] lines and take advantage of rail stops.”
He noted that the state’s Hawaii Community Development Authority, which is overseeing the redevelopment of Kakaako, should do pedestrian planning, much like the project he helped oversee in Kailua.
D’Olier, who worked in Kakaako when he was CEO of Victoria Ward Ltd., also said that he’d like to see a family-use plan in Kakaako, as well as a bike plan that utilizes government stream rights of way as bikeways rights of ways.
“Where are the kiddie parks?” he asked. “There needs to be coffee shops, soccer and basketball fields, gyms, need places for people to do recreational things.”
The former Hawaiian Airlines and Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel executive, who is known to have a funny bone or two, started off his speech with the song “Reflections” by the Supremes on his iPhone, which he used to describe his current state.
“I have been blessed to have four great jobs,” D’Olier said. “But I managed to do it with the help of my teams. I stood on their shoulders.”