Waikiki Trade Center to become 230-room boutique hotel

The Waikiki Trade Center, a 22-story, 248,000-square-foot mixed-use high-rise on Kuhio Avenue, will be redeveloped into a 230-room contemporary boutique hotel, the owner of the center confirmed to PBN Tuesday.

San Francisco real estate investment firm Coastwood Capital Group, the center’s owner, along with San Francisco-based advisory and investment firm The Chartres Lodging Group LLC have partnered on the renovation project, which also will include an eighth-floor pool and entertainment deck and retail space at the street and mezzanine levels.

The yet-to-be-named boutique hotel will include large, upscale rooms and a mix of retailers that will replace the former nightclubs that once occupied the mezzanine level of the Waikiki Trade Center.

Nordstrom Rack is one of the retailers set to open at the center in the spring of 2016, which will be the Seattle-based company’s second Hawaii store.

The repurposing of the Waikiki Trade Center will add new hotel rooms to the market, which has seen the loss of more than 5,000 rooms since 2000.

The Waikiki Trade Center is currently less than 20 percent occupied and used primarily as an office building.

Coastwood Capital Group said it has been working closely with remaining tenants on both short-term and long-term plans for their businesses during the transition.

Honolulu-based The Queen Emma Land Co. owns the land that the center occupies.

Tentatively named the “Waikiki Trade Center Hotel,” the office building conversion to a possible Hyatt Centric-branded property may be aimed at business travelers, according to Kokua Hospitality, which has been retained by The Chartres Lodging Group LLC and New York-based private equity firm KKR & Co. LP to provide renovation support, pre-opening tech services and property management.

Formerly known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the firm is a partner in the project, according to public records.

Launched earlier this year by Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp., Hyatt Centric is designed for business and leisure travelers.

The renovation of the Waikiki Trade Center is expected to cost about $61 million and be completed by the fall of 2016, according to company overview slides by Kokua Hospitality, the management arm of Chartres Lodging.

Source: www.bizjournals.com