15 Jul LANDMARK HONOLULU BUILDING TO FINISH $14M RENOVATION THIS FALL
The Michigan-based owner of the landmark Honolulu mixed-use building formerly known as the Gold Bond Building plans to wrap up its $14 million renovation this fall.
Redico, a real estate development and investment company that owns the 677 Ala Moana Building, held a building blessing ceremony on Tuesday, with President and CEO Dale Watchowski in attendance.
“With the improvements we’ve made here, we’ve taken this building and we’ve made significant [progress] in leasing, [which] demonstrates that if [owners like us] reinvest in our properties in Hawaii, we’ll see opportunities coming as a result of this,” he said. “Today with this renovation, we are celebrating a renovation and a renaissance that was made possible by Kamehameha Schools and the University of Hawaii.”
Kamehameha Schools holds the ground lease for the 12-story, 272,191-square-foot building, and just behind it, the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine and UH Cancer Center have a significant presence in the growing Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako.
Across the street, new high-rises are being built as part of Kamehameha Schools’ “Our Kakaako” master plan.
“We wanted to join in on this revitalization of this area,” Watchowski said. “Our neighbors have revitalized this district and put a lot of time and money into this area, so we wanted to do the same.”
The renovation included an eight-floor corner glass facade, a new light-filled main floor lobby, reconfiguring the main entrances to the Ewa and Diamond Head sides of the building, extensive upgrades to other common areas, seating for the interior courtyard, overall aesthetics and appeal of the property and creating a pedestrian-friendly area.
“What this has done is create a community that’s walkable and it’s certainly an amenity to our tenants here — retail tenants certainly will benefit from it,” Watchowski told PBN. “Certainly office tenants will [benefit from it] too, going to eat, get coffee, go recreate, at the end of the day, go and grab a beer at Honolulu Beerworks.”
Redico, which bought the building about two years ago, hired Honolulu-based MGA Architecture and Swinerton Builders to do the design and construction work, respectively, on the project.
Honolulu-based Standard Commercial LLC handles leasing for the building, which currently has an occupancy rate of 85 percent.
Yogi Kwong Engineers, Xerox, Ala Kuola, Blueprint for Change and Guild Mortgage are some of the building’s current tenants.
CBRE Inc. Hawaii is the property manager for the 677 Ala Moana Building.
“The market is hot right now,” Watchowski said. “We’re always looking to expand. What’s going on here is a game-changer. I would have to believe at some point in time, they will be looking to house students in the area.”
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Pacific Business News
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