A local developer plans to construct the biggest building yet in the growing "second city" of Kapolei.

Avalon Development Co. LLC, through affiliate Kapolei 60 LLC, bought a 3-acre parcel across the street from the Kapolei public library last week for $6.7 million, where it plans to put up a 335,000-square-foot office complex rising 11 stories.

The $180 million project called Kapolei Pacific Center is expected to break ground in about eight months and open in January 2009.

The developer cautioned that the project could be killed if a City Council bill proposing a moratorium on real estate development along the city's contemplated mass-transit line is adopted.

The City Council postponed action on the proposal yesterday.

"It could have killed the financial viability of our project," said Christine Camp Friedman, Avalon president and CEO.

A development moratorium could have prevented Avalon from obtaining building permits, threatening the project by creating a significant and potentially indefinite delay.

"That would have a very negative impact on an area that is supposed to be the second city and a place (where) higher-density growth is encouraged," she said.

2 BUILDINGS PLANNED

Kapolei Pacific Center is designed as two buildings and a parking structure with about 900 spaces. Of the 335,000 square feet, 285,000 square feet would be for office tenants, and 50,000 square feet on the ground floor would be for retail.

An initial phase would include one seven-story building, followed by an 11-story second phase.

The project would be taller and bigger than other Kapolei buildings, including Bank of Hawaii's 248,000-square-foot office building and the state's office building with 215,000 square feet.

SHORT ON OFFICE SPACE

Based on square footage of leasable space, Kapolei Pacific Center will be about as big as Alii Place, a 17-story downtown office tower that's 316,000 square feet.

John Bilgrave, a vice president with commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Hawaii Inc., said the project would create much needed space in O'ahu's tight office market.

"We're literally out of office space," he said. "We need office space period."

Friedman said the company responded to inquiries from businesses seeking office space in Kapolei, and has many letters of intent to lease space in the project.