HONOLULU — Downtown Honolulu is being readied for an economic revival.
That proposed comeback follows plans for new residential and redevelopment projects near and around Fort Street Mall as well as Union Mall.
And it includes the future of the once-shuttered Walmart store, formerly at 1032 Fort St., which real estate developer Avalon Group purchased in late February for over $38 million, with the stated goal of converting the 87,000-square-foot site into a residential and commercial venue.
Many hope such projects will bring visitors, shoppers and vitality back to a downtown area long known for crime, homelessness and economic hardship.
To that end, City Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam on Aug. 12 introduced Resolution 203, which requests that the city designate its Department of Transportation Services as the “primary governmental authority having jurisdiction over Fort Street Mall and Union Mall.”
“Fort Street Mall and Union Mall are currently well-frequented pedestrian corridors with adjacent apartments, restaurants, offices, college buildings, shops, and regular open markets, with access to the major bus transit lines running along Hotel Street,” the resolution states.
“Recently, new projects have been developed or are being proposed on or near Fort Street Mall and Union Mall that have contributed and will contribute to the revitalization of downtown Honolulu, including: the AC Hotel by Marriott Honolulu, a 240-room hotel at 1125 Nimitz Highway, the Residences at Bishop Place, Kekaulike Mall improvements, the Hale Kamiano senior affordable housing project, and the Fort Street Walmart acquisition and redevelopment,” the resolution states.
Dos Santos-Tam said his resolution is another step toward a larger effort.
“It takes two places with a lot of potential — Fort Street and Union malls — and unsticks them from over-regulation,” he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email. “The change could have a number of positive impacts: more foot traffic, more community events, more outdoor dining.”
Currently, he said, when the workday ends “downtown becomes a ghost town.”
“Shops close, walkways are abandoned, and unsavory things replace them: vandalism, chronic homelessness, even violent crimes,” he said. “Change began with the mayor, who has prioritized this area since he stepped into office. It continued with Avalon’s purchase of the Walmart property. Activating Fort Street and Union malls is another piece of the puzzle.”
According to the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District Association, the general boundary of the district is the length and width of Fort Street Mall from Beretania Street to Ala Moana Boulevard. In 1968 the city and county converted Fort Street into a pedestrian mall.
Similarly, Union Mall, much smaller than Fort Street Mall and bounded by Bishop and Hotel streets, also comes under the city parks department.
City laws allow the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation to “issue permits for the use of malls, as well as to preserve and upgrade malls’ aesthetic aspects, and the Department of Transportation Services to control and coordinate vehicular traffic on malls,” Dos Santos-Tam’s resolution states.
“Consequently, Fort Street Mall and Union Mall are subject to restrictions on mall use, such as limitations on outdoor dining, sidewalk sales, and the number and frequency of events, that may hamper the development of business promotion activities at Fort Street Mall and Union Mall and the revitalization of downtown Honolulu,” the resolution states.
The new legislation asserts that “the Council believes that providing the Department of Transportation Services with primary jurisdiction over Fort Street Mall and Union Mall would result in the activation of Fort Street Mall and Union Mall and have a strong, positive impact on the revitalization of downtown Honolulu, including greater area foot traffic and increased patronage of downtown businesses.”
Dos Santos-Tam’s resolution requests that Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration “exclude Fort Street Mall and Union Mall from the jurisdiction” of the DPR and “designate the Department of Transportation with primary authority over both malls.”
Ed Korybski, executive director of the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District Association, said Resolution 203 lays the groundwork for economic revitalization at the urban venue.
“We’re trying to figure out how to get more activity on the mall as the downtown switches to more residential buildings,” he told the Star- Advertiser by phone. “We don’t really have anything planned; we just want to have the flexibility to do more things.”
Korybski’s association is in charge of Fort Street Mall’s security and maintenance and operates the venue’s over 15-year open market.
He said the new resolution will allow more “commercialized events” on what is now deemed a public park area, a place where the city wants “to conserve green space and passive activity.”
But he said “case studies from across America” show pedestrian malls like Fort Street Mall — ones built in the late 1960s and early 1970s — have “switched back to transit corridors for streets.”
“It just means more vibrancy and it’s better for retail, and you can do pickup and delivery,” he added.
Other factors, like loss of office workers to the area as well as the April 2023 closure of the downtown Walmart store, also affected Fort Street Mall.
“It was a magnet to bring people in,” Korybski said of the former Walmart but noted that over time “the foot traffic has been increasing.”
He said activities like the Fort Street Mall Open Market — held weekly, Tuesdays and Fridays, from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. — have brought shoppers and more “vendor interest.”
“And, especially on Fridays, they’re getting more foot traffic,” he added.
According to Dos Santos-Tam, DPR controls the permitting and uses of both malls.
“The only regular activity that happens on top of the activity from the restaurants and shops along Fort Street Mall is the twice-weekly farmers market,” he said. “There’s much more potential here.”
“I think we can agree that Fort Street and Union malls are different from, say, Smith-Beretania Park. Yet they are essentially held to the same rules on things like commercial activity,” he said. “This is a good thing for parks, which we often want to have a lot of open space.”
“But when we apply the same rules to Fort Street Mall, we take a place with huge potential — to be a hub for things like lunch breaks and weekend brunch spots — and we neglect it,” he said.
An example of this is the city’s sidewalk dining pilot program, he said.
“For good reason, sidewalk dining isn’t allowed in our parks,” he added. “But the program could go a long way in activating Fort Street Mall. That opportunity is currently lost.”
Meanwhile, more technical details of Resolution 203 — like transportation options — “will be hashed out in the legislative process and rulemaking,” Dos Santos-Tam said.
The Council is expected to review Resolution 203 in the near future, he added.
