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Can Waikīkī’s Business Improvement District Be a Model for Downtown?
This article was originally shared on Hawaii Business Magazine | | Ryann Coules
Businesses agreed to increase property taxes for hospitality, cleaning and landscaping, and more security. Many say the extra cost is worth it.
In 2000, Waikīkī businesses acted boldly: they voluntarily increased their commercial property taxes to generate funds for a “BID.”
“Business improvement districts are a model nationwide. Most cities you go to have these business improvement districts or community improvement districts to provide supplemental services,” says Trevor Abarzua, president and executive director of the Waikīkī BID Association.
For Waikīkī, these added services include hospitality support, trash pickup, power washing, landscaping, security and homeless outreach.
The Waikīkī BID is organized into three precincts, each with its own supplemental property tax rate for the fiscal year 2025: Kalākaua/Kūhiō Corridor at 38.75 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, Kalākaua Makai at 12.92 cents per $1,000 of assessed value and Greater Waikīkī at 9.69 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
“These businesses elected to tax themselves more because they want that bucket of money to then stay in Waikīkī for these extra services,” says Abarzua. The nonprofit BID was created to manage that money and provide the services.
Does Downtown Need a BID?
If Waikīkī’s BID has improved safety, cleanliness and vibrancy, should something similar be adopted in Downtown Honolulu?
Colbert Matsumoto, chairman of the investment company Tradewind Group, has been working Downtown since 1978. Over the years, he says, he’s observed unfortunate changes in the area.
“We’ve lost a lot of large companies that have been consolidated into larger national or international organizations and companies that have suffered business downturns and have gone out of business. To a certain extent, some people have called it a hollowing out of the local business community, because with a lot of these changes, the profile of the business community has changed a lot in terms of the people, the leadership and the resources that are available to the community at large,” says Matsumoto.
Some public spaces have become seedier. The broken windows theory suggests that areas that aren’t kept clean and cleared of broken windows, litter, graffiti and other problems will attract more crime and drive away law-abiding people.
“That’s why we do the power washing and the landscaping” in Waikīkī, says Abarzua. “If it looks nicer, people treat it nicer, right? So I think Downtown could totally use that face-lift.”
Left: Brandon Lizardon power washes the sidewalk to help keep Waikīkī clean and beautiful. Right: Saul De La Rosa wipes down the newly installed trash bins, donated by JTB Hawaii, which are a major upgrade from the previous trash cans.
Matsumoto believes Downtown business and property owners may not initially support higher taxes to create a BID because they “feel these are things that the city should be doing.”
“But I think most people recognize that if they just wait for the city to kind of get their act together and address these concerns, it may not happen. So I’d like to think that rational business owners would look at this as maybe a necessary investment, but it depends on whether or not they think that they’ll be getting good value in return for the investment that they make. And that’s why the Waikīkī BID example is one that I think is very powerful and potentially persuasive,” says Matsumoto.
Aloha Ambassadors
The most visible parts of the Waikīkī BID are its 60 or so Aloha Ambassadors. They’re spread across Waikīkī and easy to spot in their neon yellow shirts, ready to help visitors and residents alike.
When I got lost on my way to interview Abarzua at his office, I was relieved to see an Aloha Ambassador nearby and asked for help. He didn’t just point me in the right direction, he kindly escorted me all the way to the door and saved me from being late.
“It’s a huge benefit for the community to have these ambassadors around,” says Abarzua.
“It’s a paid position to be an Aloha Ambassador. If you work over 20 hours, you get medical care. We offer full prescription coverage (and) a lot of different benefits that other employers do not. So it’s a great job,” he says.
The ambassador program also provides second chances: “If we see people that are homeless now and they get cleaned up, we’re willing to hire them because people need a second chance at employment too,” says Abarzua.
Ambassadors who have been homeless, substance abusers or involved in other criminal activity are some of the “hardest workers,” he says, and tend to be especially adept at helping those with similar struggles now.
Safe & Sound
Paul Kosasa is president and CEO of ABC Stores and has served as Waikīkī BID’s board chair for nearly a decade. A grant from his Kosasa Foundation and the city funds the Safe & Sound operation, a supplemental service that launched in September 2022.
“When the BID was set up, it was primarily just to provide maintenance, cleaning the streets and having ambassadors that would connect with the visitors and give them directions and advice, those type of things, but that’s morphed over the years to more services. I guess you call them security – people that aid the HPD, being eyes and ears, so it’s just a sign of the times,” says Kosasa.
The Safe & Sound initiative brings together different parties and stakeholders to come up with collaborative solutions, including HPD, the offices of the prosecuting attorney and mayor, and other community outreach programs.
“In year one, the focus for Safe & Sound was reducing habitual crime in the district by all working together and sharing data amongst organizations,” says Abarzua.
Kosasa says the biggest problem at his company is shoplifting, which has escalated over the years: “It’s not kid stuff anymore. They’re carrying weapons sometimes and threaten the safety of our employees. So, it’s a little scary.”
In addition to theft, Kosasa says, common crimes include “property damage, graffiti (and) some assault on visitors or locals.” The Waikīkī BID found a pattern in the crime data.
“It’s the same people every day committing those same little offenses, and they’re not getting arrested for it, or if they are getting arrested for it, they’re going in front of a prosecutor and a judge and (getting) a slap on the wrist,” says Abarzua.
He says the BID persuaded the prosecuting attorney’s office to enforce temporary geographic restrictions on habitual offenders. However, that’s a short-term solution that doesn’t address the root of the problem, he says, so in year two the BID is focusing on the “Sound” part of Safe & Sound.
Waikīkī bid has hired about 60 Aloha ambassadors, seen in neon yellow shirts, who assist visitors, clean sidewalks, remove graffiti, report problems and handle other tasks that make the area attractive and safe. Top left: Josephine “Josie” Baird is a Hospitality Ambassador pictured handing out maps. Bottom left: Saul De La Rosa is another Aloha Ambassador.
The BID has two full-time staff members strictly focused on outreach; they work closely with Safe & Sound Executive Director Katie Kaahanui. “So we have those three individuals that work well together, that tackle the homelessness piece and the mental health piece,” says Abarzua.
Waikīkī BID also provides a grant to the Institute for Human Services every year that allows the nonprofit serving homeless people to provide more outreach and medical and psychiatric services to the district, says Abarzua.
According to the HPD, the Safe & Sound program has contributed to a 67% reduction in drug and alcohol-related crimes, a 35% decrease in robberies, a 32% drop in burglaries and a 27% reduction in criminal property damage in its first year.