Kamehameha Schools is seeking to remake 29 acres of its Kaka'ako holdings into a dense, largely residential community, under a conceptual master plan soon to be filed with the state.

The project contemplates possibly adding 2,700 housing units — many of them rental apartments — on nine blocks between Restaurant Row and Ward Centers mauka of Ala Moana, and is envisioned to complement an adjacent biotech campus growing on land around the University of Hawai'i medical school.

An application for setting parameters to develop the land is expected to be filed next week with the Hawai'i Community Development Authority, the state agency guiding development in Kaka'ako.

Dubbed Kaiaulu 'o Kaka'ako, or Kaka'ako Community, the ambitious plan by the state's largest private land- owner follows a similar application filed earlier this year by General Growth Properties, the owner of Ala Moana Center, to redevelop 60 acres comprising Ward Centers with a mix of retail and 4,000 residential units.

Combined, the two projects if developed as expected could add nearly 7,000 residences to Kaka'ako, or close to 17,000 inhabitants, over 20 to 30 years.

Some area residents fear the two proposals will dramatically degrade traffic flow and view planes, though government planners have encouraged dense residential development in Honolulu's urban core to help alleviate pressure for developing suburbs on agricultural land in Central and Leeward O'ahu.

Today, an estimated 6,200 people live in Kaka'ako, and the city projects the area population will grow to 30,000 by 2030.

City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who represents the area, said she views the project as generally beneficial. "We have to develop the urban core rather than go out to other areas with urban sprawl," she said.

Peter Flachsbart, an associate professor of urban and regional planning at UH, would prefer to see midrise buildings rather than high-rises, but he supports redeveloping urban infill property with mixed use. "It's changing from more light industrial to residential, and that's in keeping with the urban growth boundary," he said.

Even if development plans are approved, it's still questionable how much of the two projects will be built over the next decade or two.

DEVELOPMENT RULES

The ongoing economic downturn, soft housing demand and restricted capital markets make large-scale real estate development especially challenging.

Furthermore, General Growth is in desperate need of refinancing overwhelming debt, and may end up selling prime assets or being acquired by another company that affects its Ward development plan.

Kamehameha Schools is one of the nation's largest private charitable trusts, with assets valued at $9 billion, but the entity formerly known as Bishop Estate in the past has moved slowly in executing development plans, including a 1994 plan that covered the same Kaka'ako land and more but resulted only in a CompUSA store.

Some observers suggest that General Growth and Kamehameha Schools have submitted master plan applications this year to beat proposed revisions to area development rules that could reduce the maximum building height on land fronting Ala Moana from 400 feet to 200 feet. Such a change would dramatically reduce the value of roughly 10 blocks between the two landowners by reducing the number of residential units that could be built with unobstructed ocean views.

Both master plan applications being taken up by the Hawai'i Community Development Authority essentially seek to lock in framework defining building heights, density, affordable housing contributions, public space dedications and other things for 15 years or longer.

Existing zoning still would allow the same total amount of development as under proposed rule revisions, so the developers are not seeking to build more under present rules.

'A LEI OF GREEN'

Kamehameha Schools said its master plan is very conceptual, but if approved could lead to detailed designs and initial construction as soon as late 2010.

Development, including some sale of fee-simple land for condominiums, would be guided by the trust and likely carried out with partners over 15 to 30 years.

Paul Quintiliani, director of the trust's commercial assets division, said the best opportunity to start development is along the 'ewa-most side of the 29 acres covering most of three blocks between South and Keawe streets.

One of those blocks is occupied by a CompUSA store that closed about a year ago, and the other has been a parking lot for many years after a high-rise project called Waterpark Towers fizzled on the site around 1991. A half block between the two other parcels includes warehouse space adjacent to One Waterfront Towers, a twin-tower condominium.

One specific idea for Kaiaulu 'o Kaka'ako is to connect Kaka'ako Gateway Park where it ends at Ala Moana with Mother Waldron Park three blocks mauka by adding a strip of park space down both sides of Cooke Street.

"It's a way to create a lei of green through this district," Quintiliani said. "Right now, it's in the visioning phase. We still have to design those elements."

Another idea is to reuse some existing industrial buildings, possibly along Cooke Street, that could be converted into a gathering place with a performance area, cafes, restaurants and other neighborhood retail businesses such as a bakery and grocery store.

Quintiliani said no major retail complex is envisioned for the area because so much retail exists at Ward Centers and Ala Moana Center.

"They're going to dominate retailing, and we accept that," he said. "It presents an opportunity for us to build a different kind of neighborhood."

There would likely be banks, dry cleaners, restaurants, cafes and other neighborhood retail businesses, but no big-box stores or retailers typically found at shopping malls.

The emphasis will be on housing, including high-rise development, that's intended to largely attract people working in the life sciences field nearby around the UH medical school and a planned Cancer Research Center.

MAGNET FOR HIGH-TECH

Kamehameha Schools owns 12 acres over four blocks makai of Ala Moana and adjacent to or near the medical school campus that aren't included in the master plan because different development rules apply in that area.

On two of the four blocks, the trust plans to develop a biotech office complex, with an initial 137,000-square-foot phase scheduled to break ground in late 2010 between the former Gold Bond Building and the medical school.

Quintiliani said the $80 million project is being financed by the trust, and is viewed as a magnet for high-tech businesses converting research to commercial use that will help create demand for nearby housing.

"It's not as much a money-making venture for Kamehameha Schools," he said. "It's more a catalyst project."

Another element tied to Kaiaulu 'o Kaka'ako is a transit stop planned by the city on Halekauwila Street on part of Kamehameha Schools land. A transit stop also is planned near General Growth's Ward project, and would encourage residents of the two areas to commute via mass transit and lessen traffic congestion.

The master plan by Kamehameha Schools replaces an earlier plan that covered 53 acres in the area, including the parcels covered by the new plan.

The trust in 2005 obtained approval from the Hawai'i Community Development Authority to cancel its previous urban village master plan, which would have expired on its own next year.

The former plan, dubbed Pauahi Place, called for 2,700 residential units and a similar amount of office space — about 3 million square feet — and was approved by the state in 1994.

Since then, however, all that has been developed in the area was CompUSA, partly because the market for new office space remained weak.

"The market never materialized, and we gave up on that," said Sydney Keli'ipuleole, director of the trust's residential assets division. "This (new plan) comes after a decade and a half of planning for us."