Waikiki hoteliers, industry resist sea level legislation

Due to concerns over sea level rise, a Honolulu City Council resolution seeks greater regulation over the inspection and maintenance of Waikiki’s shoreline hotels.

But Resolution 207, which would amend the city’s Land Use Ordinance, has drawn resistance from hoteliers operating within the state’s prime tourist zone. Ultimately, pending further Council review, a vote on the resolution has been postponed, however.

If adopted in bill form, the resolution introduced by Council Chair Tommy Waters will require hotels built on a shoreline lot in the Waikiki Special District to have a structural inspection performed within three years of the bill’s adoption and then every four years thereafter.

“Although there are ocean-front hotels in areas outside of Waikiki, those hotels are much newer than the bulk of Waikiki hotels and generally subject to more rigorous building standards,” the resolution reads.

To that end, owners of Waikiki’s shoreline hotels “must arrange for the structural inspection to be performed and are responsible for ensuring compliance with the requirements of this section, ” the resolution reads. “The owners of the hotel are responsible for all costs associated with the inspection.”

The resolution also requires a licensed architect or engineer “to perform a visual examination of habitable and non-­habitable areas of (the) hotel, including the major structural components of the hotel, and provide a qualitative assessment of the structural conditions of the hotel,” the legislation reads.

If structural problems are discovered, Resolution 207 would allow the city planning and permitting director to potentially “prescribe timelines and penalties with respect to compliance.”

Waters’ resolution — recognizing Waikiki’s 30,000 rooms for visitors — also notes the price paid for not inspecting and maintaining large buildings near shorelines. In particular, it cites the June 24, 2021, collapse of Champlain Towers South, in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Fla.

“In response to the Surfside tragedy in which 98 people died when a 12-floor oceanfront condominium project partially collapsed, the Florida legislature enacted a new law requiring certain buildings to undergo structural inspections in order to ensure that another Surfside tragedy never occurs,” the resolution states.

According to Waters, his resolution urges public safety first with regard to a changing global climate.

“We need these hotel owners to come to the table and have a conversation regarding the threat of sea level rise to Waikiki,” said Waters during the Council’s Executive Management Committee meeting Wednesday. “Sea level rise isn’t a distant threat; it’s happening now, and we must take tangible steps to ensure that potentially impacted areas like Waikiki remain safe and thriving.”

At the meeting, members of the hotel industry objected to more city-mandated inspections and maintenance — what many operators in Waikiki see as costly, duplicated efforts.

“Having worked with Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott, there are annual management operational reviews that are extremely extensive as to building character, spalling, electrical, plumbing, roof, elevator, structure, sewerage and more,” said Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawaii Hotel Association.

Gibson noted that extensive audits are performed by professional outside companies. “On top of that, all major hotels have professional staff on a year-round basis that inspect and perform purposeful, preventative maintenance on the buildings and landscape,” he said.

HHA, he added, believes the resolution “is unnecessary in so far as hotels are already fully incentivized to keep these buildings safe.”

“Moreover, the resolution would cause all hotels to incur substantial, additional costs to pay for professional engineers or architects to evaluate hotel buildings, and additional red tape to complete required filings with the Department of Planning and Permitting,” he said.

Sean Dee, Outrigger Hospitality Group’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said Resolution 207 “duplicates existing practices for hotel owners and narrowly targets hotels in Waikiki.”

And as far as ongoing maintenance, Dee said “major renovations” to Outrigger properties occur “every seven to 10 years.”

“It’s frequent,” he said, noting such work typically costs $50 million to $100 million. “And they start with assessment of the structural integrity: the foundations, the pilings, the basements. And that’s just something that’s a normal part of the process.”

He added that the “No. 1 focus” is infrastructure.

“So yes, these discussions are about what’s going to happen in 30 or 40 years, but our intent is to ensure that these buildings last much longer than that,” Dee said.