January 01, 2016

Visualizing Reinvestment along the Waialae-Kapahulu Corridor Questor Lau Construction value as reported by building permits is one way to measure high and low levels of community reinvestment.1 Urban areas with high levels of building permit activity (and therefore reinvestment), indicate renewal with the potential for a higher quality of living and economic returns for the private and public sectors. Areas with low levels of building permit activity may be due to infrastructure deficiencies or an overregulated environment and should be investigated further.

Figure 1: White parcels show where no building permit activity was reported (2005-2014

To begin exploring this issue, GIS was used to identify the properties along the Waialae-Kapahulu corridor, that are zoned B-2. Building permits issued from 1/1/2005 to 12/31/2014 was provided by Open Data Honolulu. Of the 356 tax parcels, 183 (51%) had no building permit activity. Over this 10-year period, a total of 495 building permits were issued. The parcel with the highest construction value was $118M2 for the (red-colored) Safeway parcel in Kapahulu.

1 Building permit fees are based on a sliding scale of reported construction value, so owners are incentivized to under report the construction value. Actual construction costs are likely significantly higher than reported on building permits. 2 The Tax_Parcel shapefile includes only the current tax map key (TMK). The Safeway site and possibly other sites are composed of several tax parcels with TMKs and/or boundaries that have changed over the years. Total construction value was approximated based on aggregating the value of new buildings under a previous TMK. Except for the Safeway site, only construction values under the current TMK were included. An exhaustive search of all prior TMKs was not done.

Chaminade Univ

Crane Park

Ala Wai Golf Course

Zippy’s

CityMill

Parking Lot

January 01, 2016

Figure 2: Reinvestment does not seem clustered around parking -- the large municipal lot at the top of Kaimuki and the Safeway area are surrounded by no-permit parcels, and are perhaps surprisingly, not hubs for redevelopment activity.

The parcel with the next highest aggregate construction value (in orange) was the former KC Drive-Inn site. According to building permit records, the new 5-story building, including alterations over a 10-year period cost $5.4M. Yellow-colored parcels represent the middle tier of construction values. The lowest construction value was for $100 and is colored dark blue. A 5-tier geometric interval color ramp was used to compensate for the wide range of values. The white parcels show where no building permit activity was reported within the 10-year period. Ironicaly, City Mill, which sells home improvement supplies, showed no permit activity. A few trends stand out right away:

The largest investments (Safeway, Market City, Hawaiian Dredging, Kaimuki Shopping Center) occurred on large lots. However, other modestly sized properties also received sizeable reinvestment. Not surprisingly, there seems to be a positive correlation between lot size and building permit activity.

Reinvestment does not seem clustered around areas with parking -- the large municipal parking lot at the top of Kaimuki and the Safeway parking area are surrounded by no-permit parcels. Parking availability and greater pedestrian activity does not seem to have stimulated surrounding redevelopment activity.

Clusters of low reinvestment (i.e. no permit activity) occur at smaller sized lots opposite the Ala Wai Golf Course and around City Mill.

Looking closer at the data shows that there were only 13 new structures built along the Waialae-Kapahulu business corridor, from 2005-2014. The Safeway project was such a large project that

Kaimuki Shopping Center

(Longs)

Zippy’s

Safeway

Market City Foodland

McDonald’s

Queen Theater

Leonard’s Bakery

(old) KC Drive-Inn

Hawaiian Dredging

Chaminade Univ

Crane Park

Ala Wai Golf Course

January 01, 2016

according to building permit records, cost approximately $117M, worth more than all construction activity occurring along the Waialae-Kapahulu corridor for the entire 10-year period. Without Safeway, the construction value of new structures compared to additions/alterations of existing structures would have been about $2M vs $22M or about 10% of all permit activity. The following table ranks the aggregated construction value3 of new structures by occupancy. The top 3 occupancy categories of New Structure Permits were: Store, Office Building and Single-Family Dwelling.

This table ranks the aggregated construction value of addition/alteration permits by occupancy. The top 3 occupancy categories were: Office, Store, and unclassified structures (i.e. walls, utility upgrades).

3 Construction valuation as reported with the building permit.

Occupancy

Total Construction

Value # Permits

Total Permit Fees

Collected

Store 117,612,075$ 5 479,327$

Office Building 1,355,800$ 3 7,129$

Single Family 360,000$ 1 3,900$

Shed 150,000$ 1 -$

Other non residential 40,000$ 2 992$

Structure other than building & unclassified36,000$ 1 672$

Grand Total 119,553,875$ 13 492,020$

Occupancy

Total Construction

Value # Permits

Total Permit Fees

Collected

Office Building $ 11,591,242 100 $ 98,725

Store $ 7,004,893 156 $ 87,883

Structure other than building

& unclassified $ 5,876,782 83 $ 42,377

Other non residential $ 1,864,796 47 $ 26,295

Service Station $ 827,500 22 $ 8,853

Apartment $ 698,650 24 $ 11,422

Industrial $ 416,448 8 $ 5,044

Single Family $ 276,077 22 $ 4,369

Amusement, recreation $ 150,000 5 $ 2,164

Garage (public) $ 53,800 3 $ 1,068

Hotel $ 30,000 1 $ 570

Shed $ 24,500 2 $ 512

Public Building $ 24,300 3 $ 508

Two Family $ 13,800 2 $ 298

Stable, barn $ 1,500 1 $ 41

Garage (private) $ 900 1 $ 29

Institution $ 500 1 $ 18

School $ 450 1 $ 18

(blank) $ - 177 $ -

$ 28,856,137 659 $ 290,192

January 01, 2016

Further analysis could look at whether the parcels that had no construction permits are already fully developed and what lot characteristics (i.e. lot area, quantity and distance to nearest off-site parking, occupancy of existing structures, and building age) are most highly correlated with permit activity. As a way to revitalize community reinvestment in these parcels, subsequent steps could identify specific aspects of the zoning code that could be adjusted to encourage reinvestment in these parcels (i.e. reduced parking, setback, height, density standards) and how that might influence community investment and the impact on the neighborhood character if those changes are allowed. The following .kmz files can be loaded and viewed in Google Earth.

1. Permit Issued (2005-2014) 2. No Permits Issued 3. Study boundary (all B-2 zoned properties along the Waialae-Kapahulu corridor)

If the files load properly in Google Earth, users are able to click on the parcels along the Waialae-Kapahulu corridor and additional information (sample at right) will open in a pop-up window. The pop-up includes a website link that allows users to enter the tax map key number (see red box, Figure 3) of a specific parcel for more information.

Figure 3: Users can load .kmz files into Google Earth and click on individual parcels to view further details. For the Safeway parcel, 77 permits were issued during the study period, for an aggregate value of $117M (rounded).