Kamehameha Schools to begin construction on Salt retail project in Honolulu this month
Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News
Kamehameha Schools will begin construction later this month on its 76,000-square-foot retail and restaurant project in Honolulu called Salt at Our Kakaako, Hawaii’s largest private landowner said Monday.
Salt, which is located on the block bounded by Ala Moana Boulevard and Coral, Keawe and Auahi streets, involves the adaptive reuse of four structures, as well as the new construction of a 267-stall parking structure along Keawe Street and a 4,500-square-foot building on Coral Street. It’s expected to be completed in 2015.
Existing surface parking will be converted to an open plaza with a splash-and-play water feature, as well as recreation and seating areas.
“The challenge to reuse these older warehouses and their materials creates an opportunity to build a beautifully gritty shopping and dining experience that can only exist in urban Honolulu,” Kamehameha Schools Senior Asset Manager Christian O’Connor said in a statement. “This project is uniquely Hawaii. It isn’t a cookie-cutter mall that could be imported or transplanted from somewhere else.”
Honolulu-based Hawaiian Dredging & Construction Co. is the project’s general contractor, while Honolulu’s Ink Architects is the project’s lead architecture firm.
Tenants, such as Cocina, Limb, Quince and Pad HI, will be moving from their current locations to vacant spaces along Auahi Street to make way for construction. Auahi Street tenants, including Bevy, Paiko, Insomnia Cafe and ZenBanx, will remain open in their current locations.
Other businesses on the Salt block, including Hank’s Haute Dogs on Coral Street, the Our Kakaako Information Center on Keawe Street, as well as Sprint, Starbucks, Lanikai Juice, Illest, The Collection sales office and Highway Inn will also remain open during construction.
Kamehameha Schools has already renovated the Ala Moana Boulevard-fronting portion of the block with the 2012 redevelopment of Six Eighty Ala Moana, a 54-unit income-restricted, rental apartment building with ground floor commercial space.