A California developer is proposing a $30 million commercial project in Waikoloa.
A California developer is proposing a $30 million commercial project in Waikoloa.
No tenants for the planned 14.6-acre shopping area are set, planning consultant Sidney Fuke said Tuesday, but the developer, Hawaiian Riverbend LLC, is in tentative talks with a hardware store and would like some smaller shops, including a grocery store, to lease space.
This is the company’s first Hawaii Island development, Fuke said. The property is on the northeastern corner of Waikoloa Road and Paniolo Avenue. Rezoning conditions require the developer to build a roundabout at the intersection of those two roads. An updated traffic impact analysis showed the developer would also need to limit three of the entrances to the shopping complex to right-in, right-out driveways, with one full-movement driveway on Paniolo Road and one on Waikoloa Road, the application said.
Hawaiian Riverbend owns about 30 acres, which was subdivided into three lots, a 14.6-acre parcel for the commercial development, about 11 acres that it will give to Hawaii County for a public park, and another 6-acre segment, the use for which has not yet been determined, Fuke said. He said he told the owners they could take all of the remaining 20 or so acres to the state Land Use Commission for the boundary amendment request. But because they don’t have a plan for the smaller portion, which he described as a remnant behind the park parcel, they opted to just apply for the 14.6-acre portion to be amended from agricultural to urban, as well as make a rezoning application to give the land a commercial designation.
Boundary amendments for parcels less than 15 acres are not required to go through the LUC application process, which is lengthy. Those go to a county planning commission instead.
The application was filed with the Planning Department in July. Director Bobby Jean Leithead Todd was soliciting comments on the application through Sept. 26, according to department documents.
Fuke, in his application, said the permits could be in place by the middle to end of 2013, with construction on the first phase done within three years. The commercial area would be a shopping complex with about 170,700 square feet of building space, including one 20,000-square-foot anchor tenant and two 15,000-square-foot anchor tenants.
Waikoloa Village Association General Manager Roger Wehrsig said Tuesday the association’s board of directors is in favor of the project.