Ward Center master plan approved

Source:  Honolulu Advertiser

General Growth has been able to their master plan for their Ward Center project approved.  It is to redevelop some 60 acres.  General Growth which also owns Ala Moana Center has really been going all out to create a wonderful shopping experience for their customers.

The approval by the Hawai’i Community Development Authority followed a public hearing in October at which support and opposition was about evenly split among roughly 50 people who testified on the project dubbed Ward Neighborhood.

Yesterday’s decision by agency board members, who voted 8-1 in favor of the plan, gives landowner General Growth Properties a broad framework to redevelop its property over 15 years.

The framework is based on agency rules defining such things as maximum density, building heights and requirements to provide public facilities and moderate-priced housing.

Jan Yokota, General Growth’s local vice president of development, said the company was pleased with the decision. “We’ve been working on this for almost two years,” she said. “It’s been a very long process.”

General Growth doesn’t expect to begin an initial phase comprising a central pedestrian plaza replacing old warehouses and Ward Farmers Market until next year.