The ‘Lost Tower’: Why Howard Hughes Has A Love-Hate Relationship With Rail The city has spent several years and millions of dollars fighting the developer in court over land for rail. Now, the transit system might not reach the Hughes Kakaako properties.
Howard Hughes Corp., one of Kakaako’s largest and most powerful landowners, has a complicated relationship with the island’s future rail transit line.
On one hand, the Dallas-based developer has touted the benefits of a rail system running through its planned 60-acre Ward Village community. It’s even used that feature at times to help sell its upscale mix of shops, restaurants, parks and new condominium towers.
At the same time, however, it’s spent years locked in a high-stakes legal battle against the city over a narrow, two-acre stretch of land that’s needed if rail is to one day snake through the neighborhood.
