Kevin Auger, the director-designate of the City and of County of Honolulu's newly formed Department of Housing and Land Management, says Iwiliei-Kapālama is a model, or pilot, of what the future of transit-oriented development can be — mixed-income communities that are walkable, climate-ready and connected.
"It's not just about what gets built, but about how we build it — with transparency, with urgency and with people at the center of every decision," he told Aloha State Daily in an email.
There have been long-term plans in the works for the redevelopment of the area, and just last week, the city took a step forward in its effort to do so.
The city has issued a request for proposal, or RFP, looking for a multidisciplinary planning and development team to prepare a TOD plan dubbed "Transforming Iwilei-Kapālama: Connecting People and Places," which the RFP says is a "coordinated TOD and infrastructure investment program for development around the Iwilei-Kapālama sub-corridor."
"In plain terms," Auger says, "the city is trying to go beyond just talking about future growth and planning, actually beginning to activate the planning efforts with real developments that can deliver more affordable housing. Over the years, many plans have outlined what a walkable, transit-oriented, affordable neighborhood could look like in Iwilei-Kapālama — this effort is about putting those ideas into action. It’s the difference between having a blueprint and starting construction."
The effort is spearheaded by DHLM and the city Department of Transportation Services.
Long viewed as a "high-opportunity TOD district," the city said in a June 4 announcement that this is the first time the Iwilei-Kapālama subcorridor will be master planned through a formalized joint city and state effort. The city noted, too, that the area includes major city and state properties, direct access to two Skyline stations, and proximity to existing parks, schools and public services.
Auger says that this effort is "directly aligned" with the city's 2025 to 2028 strategic housing plan unveiled earlier this year, "which, again, calls for an aggressive approach to active public land to deliver more affordable housing, especially around transit."
The city owns about 7 acres within the Kūwili Station TOD redevelopment area, he says, including Iwilei Center and the former First Hawaiian Bank building on North King Street, as well as several parcels near the Kūwili station that were acquired to "support affordable housing and transit-oriented development."
"Altogether, more than 75% of land in the district is under city or state control, making it one of the rare areas where large-scale, publicly guided redevelopment is truly possible."
For Auger, this effort is the kind of work the city's housing plan envisioned: coordinated, focused on implementation and rooted in long-term community impact.
"What makes Iwilei-Kapālama so exciting is the scale of what's possible," he said. "We're not just talking about one building or one project — we're talking about a chance to shape an entire complete neighborhood, built around transit, with housing, mobility and infrastructure planned together from the ground up."
These types of public-private and intergovernmental partnerships are essential, he says.
"No single agency can tackle housing alone. But by bringing together the city, the state and the development community under a shared roadmap, we can move faster, smarter and more equitably. This RFP sets that roadmap in motion."
This is different from, but closely related to, a request for qualifications, or RFQ, issued earlier this year for the redevelopment of the city-owned Iwilei Center.
Auger says that RFQ is a "site-specific solicitation to select a development partner for that one city-owned property, which occupies approximately four acres of land."
By contrast, "Transforming Iwilei-Kapālama: Connecting People and Places" is a "district-wide initiative" to master-plan the 17-acre Kūwili Station Transit Oriented Development area and coordinate infrastructure and connectivity efforts across the broader Iwilei-Kapālama Skyline sub-corridor, he said.
"Together, these two efforts are strategically timed to be undertaken as parallel," Auger says, also noting that the master-planning effort ensures that projects like the Iwilei Center redevelopment aren't being done in isolation, "but instead help advance a larger vision for a walkable, transit-connected, mixed-income neighborhood centered around the Kūwili and Niuhelewai rail stations."
According to the city, the RFP initiative is backed by a $2 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration's TOD Pilot Program, awarded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, along with a $700,000 State TOD Capital Improvement Planning Grant from the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.
Proposals are due by noon June 26. More information can be found here.
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
