A rendering of Forest City Hawaii’s 690 Pohukaina project in Honolulu.
A rendering of Forest City Hawaii’s 690 Pohukaina project in Honolulu.
A rendering of Forest City Hawaii’s 690 Pohukaina project in Honolulu.
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.
Since then, there have been several projects that have passed the Forest City project on the road to development, including Alexander & Baldwin’s The Collection, Stanford Carr and Kamehameha Schools’ Keahou Lane, The Howard Hughes Corp.’s Anaha and Waiea towers and Downtown Capital and Tradewind Capital’s 801 South Street project, just to name a few.
In December 2012, the HCDA unanimously selected Forest City Hawaii to develop 690 Pohukaina, which would be built on state land under a 65-year ground lease.
During that time, Forest City and the HCDA began an 18-month development process, which includes conducting an environmental assessment.
That 18-month period ended in May.
Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News