The wrecking ball now has a firm date with Ward Warehouse.
Property owner Howard Hughes Corp. has informed the Kakaako retail
complex’s roughly 60 tenants that they must vacate in August to make way
for residential tower development.
The closure has been anticipated since Hughes Corp. in 2014 applied
for and received state approval to develop two residential towers on
much of the site. The company initially said that construction might
start in mid-2015. Later, clearing for demolition was pushed back to no
earlier than March 2016, then to as early as July of this year.
“The demolition of Ward Warehouse is a bittersweet point in the
development of our Ward Village community,” Todd Apo, Hughes Corp. vice
president of community development, said in a statement. “As we look
forward to the future of this area, we give a heartfelt mahalo to all
the merchants who have made Ward Warehouse a special place over the last
four decades.”
Ward Warehouse, planned as a “temporary” structure to exist about 15 years, was built in 1974-75 largely using timber.
Hughes Corp. — which has a master plan for 16 towers and 1 million
square feet of retail on 60 acres that also include Ward Centre and
warehouse property — plans to develop three towers on the Ward Warehouse
site. The two approved towers — to be 28 stories with 123 units and 35
stories with 113 units — are called Ward Village Gateway. A public
recreational space with a waterway running between the two towers is
also part of the plan.
