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ASD Staff

Hawai'i Skies

Today's Hawai'i Skies was captured by Jay Ohashi Jr. in Kalihi. "Caught the sunset flexing harder than the Supra."

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25 10 23 Jay Ohashi

<title>Hawai'i Skies: The sun was a paid actor</title>

Today's Hawai'i Skies was captured by Jay Ohashi Jr. in Kalihi.

Hawai'i Skies: The sun was a paid actor

Today&#039;s Hawai&#039;i Skies was captured by Jay Ohashi Jr. in Kalihi. &quot;Caught the sunset flexing harder than the Supra.&quot; To submit your Hawai&#039;i Skies photo, visit us online or email: general@alohastatedaily.com For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Since it opened more than 60 years ago, the Pagoda Hotel, known for its koi ponds, floating restaurant, pagoda-style lanterns and Japanese-inspired garden, has long been a destination for local families.

Originally built for and still aiming to cater to kama‘āina guests, the hotel has recently unveiled a new, property-wide refresh.

"The Pagoda has been around in the community since 1964 and generations have passed through this hotel, so it's really important that we continue to honor that legacy while also respecting the cultures and traditions ahead with brining in the new, modern, fresh concepts," Aly Wee, asset manager for the Pagoda, representing the ownership group, told Aloha State Daily Wednesday during a preview of the recent revamp. "But again, [we] still want it to be a place where people can meet, where people can come together and where people can continue to create memories."

Now, according to a recent announcement, visitors to the 199-room, 12-story hotel on Rycroft Street in Honolulu's Ala Moana neighborhood, will find:

, a bakery and cafe that originated in South Korea, and a CU Hawai‘i convenience store are planned for the future, the announcement notes. Meanwhile, Rainbow Drive-In will takeover the Pagoda's iconic floating restaurant.

"We didn't start as hotel guys," Owner Robert Kurisu, son of local real estate investor Duane Kurisu, told ASD. "We started as [food and beverage] restaurant operators. We're real estate guys kind of at our core, but our history with the property started with the restaurant, so we know ... the significance of this property to local people. And people have a lot of memories of the restaurant and the koi pond growing up here."

The hotel is focused on kama‘āina, including those from Neighbor Island communities.

"That's really why we did it, with ourselves and our friends and family in mind — what is a place that you will want to come to and what is a place you're comfortable in staying," he said. "When we took it over, it wasn't at that place yet. We took a lot of feedback and commentary from people about what they thought about the property, what their memories were."

Wee says she hopes people who come in now will have a different perception of the Pagoda.

"I think in recent years, Pagoda has become known as that budget hotel," she says. "But with this transformation, [we are] really hoping that they see the work that we put in, the love that we share for this hotel and the support that we have really for the community to better this area of town."

[{"type":"text","text":"Highgate manages the Pagoda."}]

"We started this journey four years ago, reimagining what the possibility of the hotel could be," Kelly Sanders, group president of Highgate Hawai‘i, told ASD. "It's amazing to stand here today and see just the amazing transformation. We never wanted to be ultra high-end, but we wanted to be a place still for kama‘āina to come and stay. It's always been a hotel for locals and we wanted to elevate the property so that whether you're coming to go shopping or you need to go to Queen's hospital, you have a clean, safe, beautiful place to stay."

, the Pagoda opened in May 1964. According to the announcement, Hayashi aimed to create a "centrally located, uniquely Hawai‘i venue designed for kamaʻāina rather than visitors alone. At a time when Waikīkī’s beachfront hotels catered primarily to tourism, the Pagoda offered something different – a welcoming, residential-style retreat where local families, friends and communities could gather."

The property-wide updates were led by The Vanguard Theory and Albert C. Kobayashi Inc.

Pagoda room 041526

<title>New updates unveiled at Pagoda Hotel</title>

New updates unveiled at Pagoda Hotel

Government & Politics

Real Estate

The City and County of Honolulu has acquired a Chinatown property in an effort to expand housing opportunities in Honolulu's urban core.

Located at 175 N. Pauahi St., on the corner of North Pauahi and River streets, the property measures 8,231 square feet. It was acquired for $4.52 million, an announcement Wednesday from the city's Department of Housing and Land Management notes.

Kevin Auger, director of the city's Department of Housing and Land Management, told Aloha State Daily in an emailed response to questions that the acquisition has been in progress for about seven months, after the seller's broker first reached out to the city in April 2025 to gauge interest in the property.

City representatives visited the site in May 2025, and a purchase and sale agreement was executed last November, he says. The sale closed on April 1.

Auger says the acquisition was funded by appropriations for affordable housing under the city's capital improvement program. Specifically, he notes, the funding comes from the Affordable Housing Mixed-Use Development program, which supports land acquisition, development and related infrastructure improvements to expand housing.

According to Auger, the city has determined that the project will proceed as a rehabilitation of the existing structure, managed by DHLM. The city is currently working to engage a construction team that will help determine the project schedule, scope and cost. 

According to the city, the property is "currently significantly underutilized," with only four of 42 existing residential units occupied.

"Through this acquisition and planned redevelopment, the city plans to bring these units back into productive use, increasing housing availability in a high-demand area," the announcement notes. "In the near term, the city will focus on site stabilization and property management, followed by planning for renovation and construction. The goal is to return the existing units back to the market as quickly as possible while planning for additional affordable housing on the site."

Auger says that once the initial design development of the project is finished, the city will be in a better position to offer a construction timeline and target date for the units to return to the market.

Focusing on housing in Honolulu's urban core allows the city to "

make the most efficient use of existing infrastructure, including transit, utilities, and public services," he told ASD.

And areas like Chinatown and Iwilei are centrally located, close to jobs and well-served by transit, which Auger says makes them ideal for expanding housing opportunities "where people can live, work and access services without long commutes."

The focus on housing in the urban core is by design.

"Our 2025–2028 Strategic Housing Plan prioritizes increasing housing production along the Skyline rail corridor," Auger says. "The Department of Planning and Permitting has been working on transit-oriented development (TOD) plans in neighborhoods around rail stations for 10-15 years. These are comprehensive plans that have undergone robust community engagement and have been approved by City Council. The administration is now activating these plans. These are the areas that makes the most sense for future housing development: infrastructure can be aligned to support development, they provide allow for the creation of walkable neighborhoods with convenient access to job centers, allowing households to be less reliant on automobiles and in return reducing greenhouse emissions.”

This is the latest move the city has made in an effort to address housing needs across the island.

Partnering with the development community to build housing on city-owned lands is another component of the three-year 

Preferred negotiating partners have already been selected for the redevelopment of a number of city-owned properties, including 

Most recently, the city announced in March that it had 

 for the redevelopment of the former Dee Lite Bakery site in Kalihi.

Located across from the future Mokauea Skyline station, the city acquired the property at 1930 Dillingham Blvd. and 1907 Eluwene St. for about $8.4 million in 2019 "as part of a long-term effort to secure land for affordable housing near transit," the city said then.

Housing continues to be a major challenge in the Islands. Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corp.'s 

, found that Hawai‘i needs an estimated 64,490 additional housing units by 2027 to meet demand.

175 n pauahi 041526

<title>City acquires Chinatown property for future housing, redevelopment</title>

The property, located at 175 N. Pauahi St., was acquired on April 1 for $4.52 million.

City acquires Chinatown property for future housing, redevelopment

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

A proposal to build the Thirty Meter Telescope on the former site of another observatory is “feasible,” said a TMT project leader last week.

Last October, Gov. Josh Green and all four of the state’s Congressional delegates signed 

 urging leaders of the TMT project to consider shifting the construction of the controversial observatory to another site on Mauna Kea’s summit.

The letter cited “the Hawai‘i community’s request” to instead build TMT on the site of a decommissioned observatory, rather than disturbing a previously untouched piece of summit land, as the plan has been so far. The letter’s signatories assured that they would work with the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority and the University of Hawai‘i to develop a process for securing the permits necessary for such a shift.

, TMT project manager Fengchuan Liu told the board that the project could still work if it was shifted to the former site of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, which was fully dismantled in 2024. The CSO, first activated in 1986, was selected for decommissioning as part of the terms for TMT to receive a permit; the University of Hawai‘i needed to commit to close five existing telescopes by 2033.

“We on the project have taken a preliminary look at this issue from the technical side, scientifically, engineering-wise, and we believe it is feasible to build on the CSO site,” Liu said.

Liu said there are size differences between TMT and CSO: TMT’s 

, including the observatory dome, support buildings and parking area is roughly five acres, while CSO 

Nonetheless, Liu reiterated that moving the site to the former CSO location could conceivably be done. He suggested that the observatory’s support facility — used to recoat the TMT’s primary mirror segments — could be moved off the mountain to a location at sea level. Liu said this would introduce a logistical burden to the telescope’s operation, but would reduce the observatory’s footprint.

However, the logistics of such a move are still unclear, Liu said. He told the board he does not know whether the process would require new conservation district use permits or new environmental impact studies, and said the TMT’s own board would also need to sign off on the change.

Liu added that the change in site would also introduce minor variances in the observatory’s functionality: he said the CSO location is in a valley lower than most other summit observatories, causing different wind patterns that could impact the telescope’s imaging, although he believes those impacts can be mitigated.

By the same token, Liu said the lower site would also make the facility less visible from around the island than its proposed higher-elevation site.

While there was no public testimony on the matter at last week’s meeting, the board’s discussion last November of Green’s letter drew hundreds of pages of testimony, largely in opposition to the TMT project in general, relocated or otherwise.

One way or another, the future of the project remains unclear. The National Science Foundation announced in 2024 that it could only realistically fund one of two proposed telescopes as part of a “U.S. Extremely Large Telescope” project — either TMT or the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile.

 last year that it had removed TMT from consideration — punching a $1.6 billion hole in the observatory’s budget — Congress passed 

 last month stipulating that the NSF advance both projects into final design review, although with no additional funding granted to either telescope.

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ZOA 2023 7950 tio tmt 0018 16x9

<title>Thirty Meter Telescope could be moved, project leader says</title>

Controversial observatory could "feasibly" be moved to site of decommissioned facility elsewhere on Mauna Kea.

Thirty Meter Telescope could be moved, project leader says

The City and County of Honolulu is taking yet another step forward in its efforts to transform the city’s urban core, selecting EAH Housing as its preferred negotiating partner for the redevelopment of the Iwilei Center.

The four-acre parcel, acquired by the city nearly two years ago, is adjacent to the future Kūwili Skyline rail station. Its redevelopment is expected to bring hundreds of new homes to the area, along with retail spaces, community amenities and “transit-connected public spaces,” the city says.

“The Iwilei Center is a cornerstone of our broader effort to reshape the area around the future Kūwili Skyline Transit Oriented Development area,” Kevin Auger, director designate of the city’s Department of Housing and Land Management, told Aloha State Daily Thursday. “The overall redevelopment of this transit-connected neighborhood can support thousands of homes over time.”

In this public-private partnership, the selected developer will oversee master-planning, environmental clearance, architectural design, entitlement, financing, construction, lease-up and operations in return for a development contract and a 75-year ground lease, according to the 

 issued for the project earlier this year.

Auger told ASD in an emailed response to questions that by choosing EAH Housing as its preferred negotiating partner, the city is entering into an exclusive negotiation period to finalize the development agreement and ground lease for approval by the Honolulu City Council, a process that typically takes several months.

“While negotiating these agreements, early predevelopment work — including due diligence, massing studies, infrastructure coordination and initial community engagement may also proceed,” he says. “Our goal is to move efficiently through negotiations so the project team can begin the next phase of planning and environmental review in 2026.

Auger says that the project site gives the city the opportunity to deliver hundreds of new affordable and workforce housing units in an area adjacent to the historic Chinatown district and within walking distance of Downtown Honolulu, "a major job center for the city." At this stage, city expects the site to have between 750 and 1,000 homes as part of the high-density, mixed-use redevelopment, he noted, although the total number of units will ultimately depend on the developer’s proposal and the final project scope.

“By moving Iwilei Center into pre-development now, we’re taking a major step toward growing Honolulu’s housing inventory in a place where new homes make the most sense.”

 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.

 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."

The city noted in Thursday’s announcement that the redevelopment of Iwilei Center is a key component in its ongoing master-planning efforts for the Kūwili and Niuhelewai (Honolulu Community College and Kapālama) rail station areas, “a coordinated, multi-million dollar effort aligning land use, 

, transportation systems and public realm improvements.”

, a Honolulu-based Native Hawaiian-owned strategy, planning and design firm — in partnership with Toronto-based 

 —  to lead that  master-planning effort. A request for proposal was 

, the lead developer for the Iwilei Center redevelopment, has more than 30 years of experience developing affordable and workforce housing in Hawai‘i, according to the city. Core Tech is a co-developer and Lowney Architecture is the project architect, the city notes.

Karen Seddon, regional vice president of EAH Housing, said in the announcement that the organization is “honored” to be chosen for the opportunity.

“Iwilei Center is more than a housing project — it’s a chance to help shape a complete, transit-connected neighborhood that will serve families for generations,” she says. “We’re committed to delivering high-quality, long-term, affordable, and workforce homes that reflect the city’s vision and truly benefit the community.”

According to the city, the project now moves into its next phase, which includes community engagement, environmental review, land-use approvals and financial structuring. Planning and design work will continue over the next year.

Currently, the Iwilei Center houses the Department of Community Services’ Kumu Ola Hou program, a transitional shelter that 

 while the property waits for redevelopment. It 

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Iwilei Center 1

<title>Honolulu selects partner for Iwilei Center redevelopment</title>

The four-acre parcel is adjacent to the future Kūwili Skyline rail station. Its redevelopment is expected to bring hundreds of new homes to the area, along with retail spaces, community amenities and “transit-connected public spaces,” the city says.

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Authors

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