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.

CityMill

Chaminade
Univ
Crane
Park

Zippys

Parking
Lot

Ala Wai
Golf
Course

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.

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.

January 01, 2016

Chaminade
Univ
Market
City
Foodland

McDonalds
(old) KC
Drive-Inn

Crane
Park
Safeway

Hawaiian
Dredging

Ala Wai
Golf
Course

Leonards
Bakery

Zippys

Kaimuki
Shopping Center
(Longs)

Queen
Theater

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 WaialaeKapahulu business corridor, from 2005-2014. The Safeway project was such a large project that

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.

Total Construction
Occupancy
Value
# Permits
Store
$
117,612,075
5
Office Building
$
1,355,800
3
Single Family
$
360,000
1
Shed
$
150,000
1
Other non residential
$
40,000
2
Structure other than building &$unclassified36,000
1
Grand Total
$
119,553,875
13

Total Permit Fees

Collected
$
479,327
$
7,129
$
3,900
$
$
992
$
672
$
492,020

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).
Total Construction
Total Permit Fees
Occupancy
Value
# Permits
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
3

Construction valuation as reported with the building permit.

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 WaialaeKapahulu corridor and additional information (sample at right) will open in a pop-up window. The popup 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).