Efforts to bring a 127-unit affordable housing project to ‘Ewa Beach are moving forward.
Kaleimaʻo Village — West Loch Apartments will be located at 91-1666 Renton Road, on a 3.7-acre lot owned by the City and County of Honolulu.
In February, Honolulu's Office of Housing released a new, three-year strategic housing plan. At that time, city officials said the plan provides a roadmap that outlines actions the city will take to facilitate the production of new housing on O‘ahu.
Catherine Taschner, Department of Land Management director designate, said in an emailed response to questions from Aloha State Daily, that Kaleimaʻo Village is "a great example of how we're putting the city's Strategic Housing Plan into action."
"One of the key priorities in the plan is to activate underutilized public land to build deeply affordable homes, and this project does exactly that," she says. "It's being developed on city-owned land through a long-term lease, which helps lower costs and speed up delivery. It also aligns with our commitment to equitable geographic distribution — making sure affordable housing isn't concentrated in one area, but available across the island."
The project is being developed through a public-private partnership with Komohale West Loch LLC, a joint venture between Stanford Carr Development and Standard Communities. According to the announcement, the Honolulu City Council recently approved a 75-year ground lease for the site.
Taschner says these types of public-private partnerships are "absolutely essential" in the city's efforts to meet housing demands.
"The city has tools — like land, zoning and financing programs — but we need private partners to bring in the investment, the development, the know-how, and the ability to move quickly and efficiently," she said.
According to a recent announcement from the city, the project will be comprised of seven three-story residential buildings with 28 one-bedroom, 87 two-bedroom and 12 three-bedroom units around a single-level community facility. The community center will have a meeting space, laundry facility, administrative office and mailboxes, and there will be 137 parking stalls and 64 bicycle stalls, the announcement noted.
All units will be reserved for residents earning at or below 60% of the area median income, the city says, noting that this includes "single-person households earning up to $58,000 per year, and families of four earning up to $75,000 per year."
Mayor Rick Blangiardi said in the announcement that the project "specifically targets income ranges that include many of O‘ahu's essential workforce." That includes food service employees, childcare providers, maintenance staff, health care support workers and transportation personnel, he said.
Although the project is still in the development phase, Taschner says they're nearing a "major milestone" with the financing. The total cost of the project has not been made public yet, she said, but the city has committed to some $30 million in private activity bonds to help finance it.
"That funding plays a huge role in keeping the project affordable and financially feasible — especially in today's market."
According to Taschner, the city revived its PAB program in 2021 after a 23-year hiatus. She explained that PABs are usually paired with 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits, a federal program for financing affordable rental housing.
"Together, these tools reduce the amount of traditional debt a developer needs to take on, which lowers the overall cost of building the project," she explained. "That makes it possible to offer units at more affordable rents."
Taschner say 119 of the units will be reserved for households earning up to 60% of the AMI, while seven are set aside for families earning as little as 30% AMI, which she says is "crucial for those living paycheck to paycheck or struggling to stay housed."
The affordability and availability of housing continue to be frequent discussions — on O‘ahu as well as Neighbor Islands.
Blangiardi spoke at length about housing and homeless on O‘ahu during his State of the City on March 18. Affordable housing also was addressed by Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. and Kaua‘i County Mayor Derek Kawakami during their individual State of the County addresses earlier in the month.
Honolulu also recently announced plans to move forward with the redevelopment of Iwilei Center, issuing earlier this month a request for qualifications for that project. The city said at that time the redevelopment is a "key component of Honolulu's transit-oriented development initiative, leveraging the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation's Skyline rail system to create high-density, mixed-use communities with accessible housing, economic opportunities and multimodal transportation options."
In December 2023, the city acquired the former First Hawaiian Bank building at 445 N. King St. for $8.4 million and in January 2024 it acquired the Iwilei Center for $51.5 million.
The recently unveiled housing plan, which can be viewed in full here, says these acquisitions, which total nearly five acres of land, "will form the catalyst of its redevelopment and revitalization efforts around the Kūwili Rail Station in Iwilei, consistent with the Downtown TOD Neighborhood Plan."
A list of the city's affordable housing projects in development can be found here.
In the mean time, though, home prices continue to rise on O‘ahu.
The median sale price of single-family home resales on O‘ahu hit a record high of $1,185,000 in February, according to the latest statistics from the Honolulu Board of Realtors.
Trevor Benn, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said earlier this month, however, that fluctuations in monthly median figures can be more volatile since it represents a small sample of sales and that the number of home sales at different price points vary from month-to-month. The median prices of condominiums, however, declined year-over-year in February. Read more about that here.
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
