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CENTER REVIEW 56 • SHOPPING CENTER BUSINESS • December 2016 convention center. "We've designed a gorgeous, land- scaped plaza that will have a restaurant that spills out into the courtyard, as well as ground level shops and a second floor restaurant with a large outdoor deck ex- tending over the plaza, which will provide shade during the warmer months," con- tinues Witte. "We wanted to entice people to walk across the street from the con- vention center and stroll down Kapiolani Boulevard — one of the great boulevards of Honolulu." Kapiolani Boulevard was noted by Witte to be one of the most beautiful streets in Honolulu, but the lack of connection between it and the convention center of- ten kept convention center visitors from walking down it. "Kapiolani has these gor- geous monkey pot trees that extend out over the sidewalks and the roadway, pro- viding a beautiful and natural canopy," he says. "The city has been looking to entice people to it from the convention center for quite some time." Salem Partners plans to fill the retail and restaurant space with a more casual, fami- ly-friendly dining concept on the bottom floor, upscale dining at the top and a mix of high quality soft goods retailers and lo- cal merchants throughout the plaza. Alongside the luxury residential tower, Salem Partners will develop units of af- fordable housing located within one-half mile of the site. "We have worked with af- fordable housing advocates along the way to craft a community benefit package that includes up to $3 million worth of afford- able housing," says Ratkovich. "There will be up to 20 affordable housing units locat- ed within the district." Aside from providing the community with affordable housing, the project is expected to generate over $100 million in new tax and fee revenue for the city and county of Honolulu, and for the state of Hawaii over the next ten years. "We've had third party economic anal- ysis done of the impact of our project on the area, and the development is expected to provide close to 900 new jobs," says Ratkovich. Of the 900 jobs created by Mana`olana Place, 620 are expected to be permanent. "It's a huge economic boon for the area, for the city and the state," he continues. Randy Shortridge of [au]workshop led the design team for the development. Hart Howerton will be in charge of land- scape design, and Dianna Wong will lead the interior design efforts. Construction is expected to begin in 2017 with opening planned for 2020. "We're in the process of finalizing our in- terior design and layout for the building," says Witte. "We plan to hopefully begin preleasing for the residential component at the end of this year. If all goes well, we will be looking to begin construction during summer 2017, with the goal of opening the hotel in early 2020." "We've been doing business in Hawaii for 20 years," says Ratkovich. "They know us well — we're not just coming in for a quick kill, we're here for the long term. It's been very exciting to see this transfor- mative project take shape." SCB