The developer of a retail and residential complex at Ward Centers has received state approval to reinter Hawaiian burial remains discovered on the project site a year ago, and yesterday planned to start moving the remains to an air-conditioned trailer for temporary shelter.

Construction had been halted in the vicinity of the remains, creating some delay for the project called Ward Village Shops that includes a Whole Foods Market, a 17-story rental apartment building, assorted retail shops and a parking garage at the diamondhead end of Auahi Street in Kaka'ako.

The remains, or iwi, will be placed in a secure trailer on the project site for one to two years until construction of the project is substantially complete.

Final reinterment will place the iwi at two sites near where they were discovered, as agreed to in a burial treatment plan approved last week by the State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Ward Village construction will be allowed to advance in the area of the remains after they are removed from the ground, which is estimated to take two to three weeks, according to the plan from project developer and landowner General Growth Properties.

General Growth representatives could not be reached yesterday for comment. The company previously said it expects the $100 million-plus project to open next year.

A blessing for the iwi was held yesterday.

Iwi reinterment was opposed by most of the 30 individuals from four families recognized by the state as cultural descendants of the area.

But the O'ahu Island Burial Council in September voted 6-4 in favor of relocation, which was supported by some cultural descendants who believed that moving the iwi away from construction was proper.

Paulette Kaleikini, a member of the Keawemahi family descended from the area, maintains that relocation amounts to desecration. But she said she prefers the site agreed upon for reinterment over a site initially proposed by General Growth.

Eleven sets of remains were discovered primarily in the 'ewa-makai and diamondhead-makai sections of the nearly five-acre property. General Growth's initial proposal was to rebury the remains in a diamondhead-mauka section of the site that would have allowed reinterment sooner.

"That would have been more desecration," Kaleikini said, explaining that General Growth's recommended reburial site will be used as a delivery area and was far from the original burial sites.

Melanie Chinen, Historic Preservation Division administrator, said a majority of the area's recognized cultural descendants favored the approved sites for reburial.

The iwi will be reburied in two places outside the walls of the complex relatively close to the original burial sites, and include buffer zones to protect the areas from pedestrian traffic.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.