With a crash, the bucket of the big yellow excavator broke through the side of the dilapidated Waikīkī apartment Wednesday morning, ripping through the concrete and rebar and sending clouds of dust into the air.
Covered in graffiti, windows broken and jalousie slats missing, the three-story apartment building at 1615 Ala Wai Blvd. is coming down.
The City and County of Honolulu, which acquired the property through condemnation in January 2024, is demolishing the derelict building to make way for a future affordable housing development.
Cat Taschner, deputy director designate of the city's Department of Housing and Land Management, or DHLM, took the first swipe at the building with the heavy equipment after comments from Mayor Rick Blangiardi and DHLM Director Designate Kevin Auger.
Built in 1949, the apartment sat empty for more than two decades and had become "a magnet for blight, vandalism and trespassing," the city said in a July 9 announcement, as well a source of "long-standing community concern."
"Today is the first day of a new beginning to this place and we're very excited about that indeed," Auger told a small group of city officials and others who gathered for the start of the demolition.
He said that one of the big decisions the city had to make after condemning the property was what to do with it. The question was whether to renovate what was there or build something new.
The building had deteriorated over the past few decades, Auger said, and the city felt there was too much risk, "so we came to the decision to let's just start fresh. Let's start new."
Partnering with the development community to build housing on city-owned lands is one of the components of a strategic housing plan the city unveiled earlier this year. You can find the plan here.
Around the time the plan was announced, Honolulu issued a request for qualifications for the redevelopment of four underutilized city-owned properties into affordable rental projects: 1615 Ala Wai Blvd., 436 Ena Road, 130 South Beretania St.; and 1421 Pensacola St.
Auger said the city is in the final stages of selecting a preferred development partner for 1615 Ala Wai Blvd., and an announcement could be made in the coming weeks.
The city anticipates "maybe a little more density" on the site, "because we need and want to deliver affordable housing to the Waikīkī community," he said, but there's no word yet on how many units might be included in the redevelopment.
Auger told Aloha State Daily after the demolition commenced, though, that the city wants the project to "fit the character and the style of the community ... but the developer will be responsible for working that out with the community."
Blangiardi told ASD that this redevelopment is just "one more piece to a very broad, comprehensive housing plan."
Offering long-term leases on city-owned land can help keep projects more affordable for developers, he explained, noting that "usually it's the land price which chokes the deal."
"That's exactly what we intend to do — not have the land be a barrier to what gets created," Blangiardi said.
Auger told ASD the city has identified 11 under-used properties for redevelopment — some of which he said have been in the city's portfolio for decades — and is working on its seventh request for qualifications, which is expected to be issued before the end of the month.
Once the development partners are selected, "We'll have a legitimate pipeline of 3,000 units underway," he said.
The demolition work in Waikīkī is being led by R.H.S. Lee, Inc., the city's contractor for the project, and will take place in phases through the end of August.
According to an announcement from the city, that work includes demolition using heavy equipment, the removal and hauling of concrete and construction debris, and the demolition of concrete stairs and incidental structures. The existing slab and foundation will remain in place and no site grading is planned, the city said.
Before the demolition began, the city said Unitek Insulation finished the abatement work. The site remains fenced.
The city also noted that residents and businesses in the area can expect intermittent noise during standard construction hours, increased truck traffic and daily road cleaning activities around the site.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
