The Honolulu City Council has approved a plan to revitalize Downtown Honolulu.
The Council on Wednesday voted to pass a bill expanding the current Fort Street Improvement District into a Downtown Honolulu Business Improvement District, which would encompass more than 2,000 parcels in the area.
The proposal has been under discussion throughout the summer, with advocates for the district holding meetings in August to gauge public interest.
By Wednesday, public support for the district had become unanimous, with Downtown stakeholders praising the proposal and excited to get to work. Victor Lim, chair of the Fort Street Mall BID, said the council “can rest assured that we’ll do what’s right to make this work.”
Andrew Pereira, public affairs director for the Pacific Resource Partnership — located within the BID’s boundaries — specifically called out the Aug. 8 acid attack wherein Marquis Johnson threw acid on a stranger unprovoked, blinding the victim in one eye. Such an incident, Pereira wrote, highlights an “urgent need’ for additional measures to deter crime.
Despite this, the BID does not include Chinatown. The district’s boundaries enclose the space between S. Nimitz Highway, Richards Street, Beretania Street and Nu‘uanu Avenue, as well as the block between Mililani and Halekauwila Streets.
Previous discussions about the district have suggested that the BID could be expanded in the future to include Chinatown. However, some Chinatown business owners have raised concerns throughout the bill’s passage that Chinatown’s exclusion from the BID will end up pushing homeless people and criminal activities into the nearest communities not protected by a BID.
On the other hand, the United Chinese Society of Hawai‘i wrote to the council that they are hopeful that the BID will “provide ancillary benefits” to Chinatown and the rest of the surrounding area.
With the bill passed, the district will officially begin July 1, 2026. The proposed first-year budget for the district is $1.9 million, $1.77 of which would be collected via assessments on member businesses.
Those assessments would be levied annually at a rate of $0.75 for every $1,000 of a parcel’s assessed value: ergo, a parcel valued at $100,000 would pay an assessment of $75.
Residential parcels, land owned by the city, state or federal governments, and land exempt from real property taxes are not subject to assessments.
About $1 million out of those assessments will be spent on hiring “Information and Safety Officers,” who will patrol the public areas of the district seven days a week in order to supplement existing security by the Honolulu Police Department and private security. The officers will not have arresting authority, but would be present to contact HPD in the event of criminal activity.
The remainder of the budget will be spent on cleaning crews and other management expenses.
The bill also establishes the BID’s 20-member board, 12 of whom will be elected by the membership, with the remainder of seats filled by representatives of the mayor’s office, HPD, the Downtown councilmember, Downtown neighborhood board and various city agencies.
With the passage of the bill on third and final reading, it now goes before the mayor, who has 10 business days to veto it, or else it will become law with or without his signature.
