[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