KAILUA-KONA — The Kailua Village Design Commission Tuesday night deferred taking action on a new 14-building commercial center proposed for Kailua-Kona.
The proposal would put the new commercial center, referred to in documents filed with the Planning Department as Niumalu Market Place between Lanihau Center and Henry Street, makai of Queen Kaahumanu Highway. The parcel is zoned for general commercial use, according to the application for review and the applicant for the project is Sentinel Development, a California-based real estate development company.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, several commissioners said that while they generally supported the project, they also raised some concerns with some elements they found to be lacking in the proposal, such as rock wall elements, roof lines and other features.
“I think the overall project is generally a good one,” said commissioner Mark Van Pernis. “But I would like a complete submittal.”
After the commission meeting, Sentinel Development CEO Colby Durnin said they were excited about the project and willing to work with the commission to make it happen.
“We’re very happy with where we’ve been, but there’s some good recommendations in there and we look forward to getting them something new,” he said.
An overhead illustration of the development’s layout proposes 185,650 square feet of lease space, including a 63,000-square-foot anchor building.
Durnin said they’re working with Safeway to move into that space. A representative from Safeway couldn’t be reached for a comment Wednesday.
Safeway, currently located mauka of Walmart, is in a building section measuring a little more than 54,000 square feet, according to the County of Hawaii Real Property Tax Office.
The proposed Niumalu Market Place also proposes five other buildings with areas ranging from 12,500 to 23,000 square feet, a 27,850-square-foot gas pad as well as smaller shops with 8,125 square feet of lease space or less.
Only two of the 14 total buildings, a 12,500-square-foot shop and a 20,000-square-foot service retail building, would be two-story buildings.
The rest, including the anchor, are expected to be single-story buildings.
Illustrations of the site show a total 758 parking stalls.
Sentinel Development said they haven’t yet secured other tenants in these early stages but are exploring uses such as urgent care, dining options and “other tenants that fit with the needs of the local residential community.”
The proposal also included extensive landscaping plans incorporating native plants like hala and Hawaiian Kou, canoe plants like sugar cane, and introduced species like monkeypod and Singapore plumeria.
One prominent concern commissioners had with the submitted plans was what they believed wasn’t included, such as potential rock walls the developer had proposed as a nod to the kuaiwi of the Kona Field System.
The specifics on those walls were still in the works. A landscape architect associated with the project said a grading plan hasn’t been completed and architect Lester Ng said they are waiting on some reports to identify specific locations for the proposed wall features.
“We have a very good idea, but we don’t have a very specific location,” Ng said.
While all of the proposed walls weren’t included on the submittal, Ng identified for commissioners areas where there would be walls, such as where the elevation steps down.
But Van Pernis said the commission needs the specifics in the submitted plans.
“I understand that it’s likely that there will be rock walls in many locations,” he said. “But they’re not on the plans.”
Other commissioners took separate issue with other elements they found lacking from the plans, such as lighting.
Commissioner Zon Sullenberger underlined the importance of the commission having those fully detailed plans before they can sign off on any projects.
“What we need to look at and give approval to needs to be pretty close to what finally ends up there,” he said.
Additional concerns included locations of a proposed bus stop and pavilion included in the plans, as well as the scale of some proposed features.
“I’m trying to imagine myself in the spaces the way that they’ve been described, and I’m seeing the gap,” said Commission Chair Peter Dahlberg.
The board voted to defer consideration of the application and requested a more detailed application based on commissioners’ comments. The developer plans to come back before the Design Commission in January.
