By Ian Bauer

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Downtown Honolulu property owners will soon pay into a revamped special improvement district to boost public safety and economic revitalization in an area long known for crime, homelessness and closed businesses.

The City Council on Wednesday voted 8-0, with Andria Tupola absent, to pass Bill 51, which formally renames the existing Fort Street Mall Special Improvement District to the
Downtown Honolulu Business Improvement District, or BID.

Like the Waikiki Business Improvement District, the Downtown Honolulu BID is expected to provide services such as enhanced cleaning, safety patrols, and landscaping, and supplemental improvements like lighting, signage, and street furniture in downtown, according to Council staff.

The new BID may also plan and coordinate festivals and other activities to enliven the Downtown Hono-lulu area, Council
staff said.

The new district’s boundaries will be expanded to include an area bordered by Nuuanu Avenue, South Beretania Street, Richards Street and Nimitz Highway. The district also includes an adjacent commercial block bounded by Queen, Mililani, Halekauwila and Richards streets, the bill indicates.

With an initial term of
five years, the new district comes with a management association governed by either an elected or appointed nonprofit board, the measure states.

Composed of 20 voting and nonvoting members, the proposed board would include downtown property owners, along with representatives from city agencies, including the Honolulu Police Department, and other community stake-holders, the bill states.

Tyler Dos Santos-Tam — whose Council District 6
includes downtown — introduced Bill 51.

Under the updated plan, nonresidential property owners in the district would contribute to a $1.9 million “first fiscal year” annual budget through special assessments. These funds, according to Dos Santos-Tam, support a visible safety and maintenance presence seven days a week and help coordinate services with HPD and city agencies.

The area includes 2,088 parcels in total within the boundaries of the BID,
Dos Santos-Tam said.

Larger property owners in the area include the Roman Catholic Church, First Hawaiian Bank, Douglas Emmett, Avalon Development, Meiji Yasuda America Inc. (Pacific Guardian Tower), and Hawaii Pacific University, he said.

Residential properties in the district will be exempted from the assessment, the bill indicates.

Likewise, under Bill 51, downtown property owners who currently receive a real property tax exemption for parcels used for church purposes will also be exempt from paying assessment fees to the new BID.

Prior to the vote, only those in support of Bill 51 — in both oral and written
testimony — appeared, including members of the business community and construction industry.

“We stand in strong support of this,” Robby Kelley, with real estate development firm Avalon Group, said. “This is something that we believe is going to be a huge boon for downtown, and we are really excited to see it be put into effect soon.”

Victor Lim, with the Fort Street Mall Business Improvement District, said he welcomed the expanded BID.

“And you can rest assured that we will do what’s right to make this work, and you’ll be very proud of the downtown Business Improvement District,” he said.

In past weeks, however, a major property owner objected to the BID.

Kevin Crummy, chief investment officer of California–based Douglas Emmett Management LLC, previously stated the new special improvement district will do nothing to stop the homelessness and crime that continue to plague downtown.

“A BID alone simply cannot solve these complex social issues,” he wrote previously.

Others, like Chinatown Business &Community Association member Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock, backed the intent of Bill 51, but wanted the downtown BID to extend into Chinatown as well.

“We’re not separate, we’re Siamese twins,” she said previously. “So we want to support downtown to prosper, but downtown needs to support Chinatown.”

Conversely, Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration stated its support for a Downtown BID.

And Esther Kia‘aina, chair of the Council’s Zoning Committee, which reviewed and tweaked the measure prior to its full approval this week, also noted the benefits of the future BID.

“I don’t believe that this is just going to be a boon to downtown. It’s going to be a boon to our visitors and kamaaina alike, and Hawaii’s overall economy quite frankly,” she said. “You are the heartbeat of Oahu’s economy, and even Hawaii’s economy.

“And as such, when you go and work hard every day you want to be able to go to a thriving environment, where you can feel safe, and you see the improvement on your sidewalk and all of the infrastructure necessary to have you to continue to be successful for our economy,” Kia‘aina added.

After approval of Bill 51 on Wednesday, a brief round of applause erupted at the Council meeting, held inside Kapolei Hale.