Interior improvements are underway this year for housing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i “to provide high quality housing for our service men and women.”
According to Brent Arakaki, director of development for Hunt Military Communities, which manages ‘Ohana Military Communitiesʻ more than 7,000 residential units on Oʻahu, the company “retains a recapitalization and long-term sustainment plan, which is updated annually, to replace aging assets in the housing portfolio.”
“Our asset plan is based on lifecycle replacements of major components in the homes, such as water heaters, [air conditioning] systems, roofs, playgrounds and infrastructure, to name a few,” he said in an email to Aloha State Daily. “Cyclical replacements are planned at the end of each asset’s useful life to ensure our project has enough funding to support large scale replacement scope. This is a proactive approach to develop replacement projects, in lieu of our maintenance teams replacing systems during systemic failure.”
He added that on average, ʻOhana Military Communities reinvests “tens of millions" of dollars back into local communities per year.
This year, ‘Ohana Military Communities has two ongoing interior renovation projects amounting to $36 million, which will add to an existing recapitalization program for a total of $50 million, the company noted last month.
Arakaki said, “One [is] at Pa Honua (238 homes at MCBH), which started in January 2023, will [be complete] by Q3 2025. The second renovation project at Hokulani (190 homes at JBPHH) started in July 2024 and will [be] complete in 2027.
“The third interior renovation project is planned for Hawaiʻi Loa (237 homes), also at MCBH, with a projected start in summer 2025, and a three-year construction duration. The projects are completed during change of occupancy (unit vacancy), which takes roughly three years before a full neighborhood churn.”
ʻOhana Military Communities has 105 contracted workers, with 12 to 30 workers on-site for the Pa Honua interior renovation project, according to Arakaki. “For Hokulani, we peaked at roughly 50 workers last year and are stabilized at around 15 workers. For Hawaii Loa Interior renovation project, we will average roughly 20 workers on the project.”
The general contractor for all three interior renovation projects is Unlimited Construction Services Inc., he said, adding that other local companies involved include Goodfellow Brothers, Takano Nakamura Landscaping, Society Contracting LLC, Century Flooring, Vans Flooring & Tile, Advance Plumbing Systems, Gordon Mechanical LLC, Redmond Valleywide, Tabla Mechanical LLC, Protech Roofing LLC, Evolution Builders, Road Builders, ICON Builders, ROMSCO, Inter-Island Solar Supply, American Floor & Home and more.
When asked about how these projects are funded, he said, “ʻOhana Military Communities deposits a portion of its revenue into reserve accounts and reinvests its resources back into the neighborhoods per its long-term sustainment plan. ʻOhana Military Communities is a 50-year partnership between Hunt and the Navy, to develop, renovate and maintain military family housing for both the Navy and Marine Corps.”
In addition to interior renovations, ʻOhana Military Communities is proud of its sustainability efforts, which "support OMC’s overarching mission to provide safe, comfortable and environmentally responsible housing for military families,” Arakaki said.
“One of our key initiatives is our 16.5 mega-watt rooftop solar program, which reduces dependence on traditional energy sources, lowers overall community carbon emissions, contributes to cost-savings, long-term energy resiliency, and promotes a sustainable lifestyle for our residents. In addition, we recently launched a water conservation retrofit project impacting more than 1,000 homes over the last four years, with the most recent upgrades completed in March 2025 in the Pearl City Peninsula, Hālawa and Knob Hill neighborhoods. This initiative includes upgrading fixtures and systems to low-flow versions to reduce water consumption without compromising comfort or functionality.”
He continued, “ʻOhana Military Communities is responsible for utility payments over most of its portfolio. Cost savings that are generated from operations will increase deposits into the reserve accounts and allow for continuing reinvestment back into the communities.”
Future partnerships, he said, will include the Department of Defense’s Resident Energy Conservation Program, a homeowner utility billing program “designed to encourage conservation by offering incentives and rewards for energy efficiency,” according to Arakaki.
“I enjoy developing projects that improve our military families’ quality of life. These are projects that improve curb appeal, reduce maintenance work orders and enhance the overall military housing experience with certain reinvestment projects,” he told ASD. “Asset improvement projects always keep the end user in mind, when done right.”
ʻOhana Military Communities’ spends $1.5 million to update its warehouse in Pearl City
According to Arakaki, ʻOhana Military Communities’ $1.5 million warehouse renovation project "is still on target to complete mid-May."
"ʻOhana Military Communities’ maintenance staff is located at its main office near the Honolulu International Airport," he said. "Overall, OMC has 210 employees on Oʻahu. The renovation of this satellite warehouse will relocate roughly 22 maintenance personnel closer to OMC’s central neighborhoods (approximately 1,000 homes).
As for other benefits? "Customer response times and service work orders will improve." The support staff and their materials and equipment will be closer to the the west and north side of Pearl Harbor that are located far from the main base, he said, adding, "In addition, it eliminates costly, stressful drive times for our employees, as well as reduces congestion on the highway system and overall fuel costs. Making it a win for our employees, our residents and our overall Oʻahu community."
For more information about Hunt Military Communities, click here.
Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
