TOC consults with Samkoo on new condo

Kapi‘olani Boulevard is expecting a new building this summer.  Korean condo developer, Samkoo, is constructing a 45-story condo to provide affordable housing in downtown Honolulu.  Mahalo to Board member, Steve Mechler, for meeting with developers, architect and landscape architect on March 20th to go over their plans for landscaping and area trees.  

A representative of the project said that this is Samkoo’s first building in Hawaii and they wanted to be sure to make a good first impression.  

The building will provide all affordable housing (1-3 bedrooms) and is designed within the existing zoning limitations.  Their proposal calls for widening the public sidewalk and enlarging the planting wells for street trees. This is good because the current planting wells are too narrow, forcing tree roots to bunch up in the planting space and push up surrounding concrete.  In the process of constructing the building, two monkeypod trees will be removed. These trees have been hit by cars and restricted by the small planting space, so they are not in good condition.  When construction is complete, Samkoo will install two new comparable monkeypod trees nearby -- one immediately across the street and the other in place of the current driveway. They expect to breakdown this summer.