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When Tony Ching was growing up, his father would often mildly thump his son’s noggin in admonition.

“‘You’re always thinking small,’ he’d say. ‘You have to think big,'” Ching said.

Today, Ching, executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, is thinking big — very big.

The HCDA, a state agency that administers 660 acres in Kakaako, 3,770 acres in Kalaeloa and 400 acres in Heeia, is pursuing the construction of the tallest building in the state — the 650-foot 690 Pohukaina.

The mixed-use Kakaako complex that includes affordable housing units would be the centerpiece of a revitalized core of Honolulu, an “urban village” described by Gov. Neil Abercrombie as a “third city.”

Moreover, Kakaako would serve to change the behavior of people wedded to the costly culture of the automobile. Kakaako would be a compact, “livable community” where public and private spaces would be integrated into a user-friendly whole.

There would be high rises, as many as 10, but ones that preserve “viewable corridors.” The emphasis, however, will be on street-level engagement: bike paths, safe pedestrian walkways, trees, parks, buildings with “living walls.”

“It will be a place where cars are not king,” said Ching.

Development will not be “willy-nilly,” as Ching put it, but instead comport to a defined set of criteria such as development standards.

In theory, residents young and old could live, recreate, shop and use public transportation (like rented bikes) in an inviting fashion not currently enjoyed in Hawaii.

“This is about what we want Honolulu to look like,” said Ching.

The challenge, however, is to sell the vision to the public.

Many people don’t even know what the HCDA does, though it has been around for nearly four decades.

There has been growing wariness toward projects like Honolulu rail and Hoopili that have nothing to do with the authority. And it wasn’t all that long ago that Alexander & Baldwin’s ambitious plans to redevelop the Kakaako makai area was stopped by surfers and fishermen.

Will Honolulu accept Ching’s big picture?

Governor’s Support

Ching says the HCDA is embarking on a campaign to dispel any misunderstanding about the Kakaako plan and to elicit public support.

It will include a series of brown-bag gatherings, chronicled on HCDA blogs, with key stakeholders ranging from the Sierra Club and The Outdoor Circle to Kakaako landowners like Kamehameha Schools, the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects and developers like Sanford Carr.

“This is not a ‘plan, announce and defend’ approach,” said Ching. “The community should have an understanding of what we want for our community.”

Ching’s top supporter is the governor.

At a forum Wednesday at the Plaza Club titled “Kakaako Arising!”, sponsored by ThinkTech Hawaii and the Hawaii Venture Capital Association, Abercrombie once again gave his enthusiastic approval to developing Kakaako.

“People from all over the country, all over the world are going to be saying, ‘What are you folks doing down there? This is fantastic. This is marvelous,'” he said. “We are going to have art blocks, we are going to have small businesses, we are going to have loft living — every variety of modern life across the complete spectrum of our relationship to one another from the very young to those of us that are aging in place.”

Abercrombie said what will happen in Kakaako will be “the revitalization of a new Honolulu.”

Mitch D’Olier president and CEO of Kaneohe ranch, which has major property holdings in Kailua, also spoke approvingly of the project, but with caveats.

“I think there is unlimited commercial opportunity, but you have got to do the planning right,” he cautioned. Planning for residential high rises could be “trickier.”

If the right project with the right rules came along, however, D’Olier said it would be welcome by financial lenders.

‘A Great City’

Kathy Inouye of the Kobayashi Group, another speaker at “Kakaako Arising!”, recalled how Kakaako used to be known primarily as a place for auto repair shops, quonset hut warehouses and streets that flooded during rain showers.

“Now people say they like to live in the condos, and it’s a really cool place for little restaurants,” she said. She agreed with D’Olier that it remains to be seen what the market will bear.

But Paul Quintiliani, director of commercial real estate for Kamehameha Schools’ Endowment, was more enthusiastic, calling the plan for Kakaako “a wise approach” and a “progressive vision.”

Quintiliani pointed out that Kakaako has historically always been a thriving place, fueled by the cultivation of salt that was used not only to flavor food but to preserve fish and be used for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. Salt was also a heavily traded merchant commodity.

Said Peter Apo, a trustee with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which is negotiating with the state for transfer of $200 million in Kakaako parcels, said, “I think this vision is an opportunity for the City and County to take the next step to truly become a great city by global standards.”

‘Walk the Talk’

Tony Ching believes HCDA has the right plan and the right rules for Kakaako, and he is eager to share them — the 690 Pohukaina plan, rules governing the Kakaako mauka area and a plan on the economics of building community and place.

They are colorful yet careful documents that Ching said give context to the Kakaako vision. The mauka rules, for example, completed just last fall, were four years in the making.

Watching Ching’s PowerPoint of the economics of building community, it is remarkable to see how dramatically Kakaako has changed over the past 150 years — by missionaries and planters and fishing and ironworks and ethnic enclaves.

Most visitors to Kakaako Waterfront Park, adjacent the John A. Burns School of Medicine, are not aware that it sits atop a former dump for construction and demolition. One day, it’s possible there will be a President Barack Obama learning center (Chicago is likely to land the library) near where the now-defunct John Dominis restaurant stands.

The point: Kakaako has alway evolved, and will continue to do so. The key is a balanced, sustainable approach that preserves neighborhoods, maintains communities, allows traffic circulation and builds density upwards, not outwards.

Ching, who holds a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Hawaii, said HCDA has to “walk the talk.” That includes finding the right developer for 690 Pohukaina.

The HCDA is extending the request-for-proposals deadline from May 31 to Aug. 31 to broaden the pool of applicants, applicants who fully understand the rules and the plan and the place.

“It’s all described in the rules,” said Ching. “It is not rhetoric.”