Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has adjusted its redevelopment plans for the fire-damaged Kahului Shopping Center on Maui to include 442 residential condominiums mixed with retail and office tenants.

The condo component of the "urban village" project previously was expected to include 200 to 300 units above expanded retail and office space.

In addition to more condominiums, A&B now plans to divide the 20-acre property, which lost about half its retail buildings to a February 2005 blaze, into four blocks dissected by a pedestrian-oriented Main Street and a smaller road to create a town center for Kahului.

The company laid out its detailed plan for the project called Kahului Town Center in a recent draft environmental assessment filed with state and Maui County agencies.

A&B describes its plan as an example of "smart-growth" development — more productive and efficient re-use of urban land by mixing residential and commercial components.

"The project will be especially attractive to future residents that want to live within walking distance of employment, shopping, dining and entertainment," A&B said in its report. "Although maintaining a connection to its plantation camp roots, the proposed Town Center represents a major redevelopment project and the evolution of Kahului as an urban center."

Buildings would rise from one to five stories with much of the residential units above ground-floor retail fronting 20-foot-wide sidewalks allowing outdoor seating for pedestrians and businesses.

A main street dubbed Town Center Drive would intersect with a smaller cross street at a roundabout surrounding a water feature. A half-acre park and 1,913 parking stalls are also part of the plan.

Architectural design of the complex would vary to reflect plantation-era, Neoclassical and Mission Revival styles to give an impression that the buildings were built at different times.

Grant Chun, vice president of A&B subsidiary A&B Properties Inc. on Maui, said feedback from community group meetings generally has been positive.

"It's essentially a back-to-the-future effort — introducing small, walkable streets that existed on this block prior to the shopping center's establishment, and the center of a small residential and commercial area in Kahului town," he said.

The old single-story shopping complex was built 55 years ago by A&B Properties predecessor Kahului Development Co. as part of what was then a developing "Dream City" master-planned by the company.

The first residents moved into Kahului in 1950, and the retail center that opened a year later was described as the first "integrated shopping facility" west of the Mississippi. Today it is Maui's oldest shopping center.

A February 2005 fire, that authorities suspect was started by a homeless person who was cooking, destroyed roughly half of the 100,000-square-foot center, including three of its largest stores: Ah Fook's Super Market, T.J.'s Oriental Food Mart and a Salvation Army Thrift Store.

About 20 other tenants — including Del's Farm Supply, Asian Cuisine & Sports Bar and Ichiban Restaurant & Sushi — continue operating.

The new complex is to have almost 50 percent more retail space, or 144,000 square feet. A&B in its report said that existing retail tenants will be offered space in the new project, and that some tenants wouldn't be displaced for five years or more.

The project also will feature 96,000 square feet of office space in addition to 57,000 square feet of office space to be retained on the property.

A&B said business tenants could include grocer Ah Fook's, boutique shops, restaurants, cafes, clubs, banks, medical clinics and professional services.

The first condo sales are projected for late 2008. Prices for the one- to three-bedroom units will largely depend on construction costs and real estate values at the time, but A&B consultant Chris Hart & Partners anticipated prices could range from the upper $200,000s to the $600,000s. County affordable housing requirements would be met.

A&B anticipates construction will begin in mid-2007 or 2008. Construction would commence in phases stretching until 2012 and allow existing mall tenants an opportunity to relocate to the new complex.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.