The City and County of Honolulu says that a recently acquired Iwilei property advances the city's long-term plans to "assemble and revitalize" land around the future Kūwili Skyline station and support thousands of housing units in the area.
In a sale that closed on June 30, the city purchased 519 Ka‘aahi St. for $2.7 million. It marks "another important step on the city's coordinated effort to transform the Iwilei-Kapālama corridor into a vibrant, mixed-use , transit-connected neighborhood," a recent announcement from the city noted.
"That's a little property that's just down below this space behind us," Kevin Auger, director of the Honolulu Department of Housing and Land Management, said during a press conference last week at the city-owned Iwilei Center. "It's a small building but it has a significant impact, and the reason for that is it's one of the keys that is going to help us unlock our ability to deliver thousands of housing units on this space."
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.
A three-year strategic housing plan unveiled last year 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."
Although a small acquisition, Auger says that the purchase of 519 Ka‘ahi is important to the city because it's the first acquisition "for the city to bring together the balance of this site."
Auger says the city is working to acquire several other properties in the vicinity, and after those sales close, "the city will own the majority of the land in this area and will have access to create connectivity to North King Street, which is very important."
"Over a couple of different phases, we intend to acquire the balance of the land in the area. ... This is very important to the city and it's very important to this community because transit-oriented development will fundamentally transform this area and provide thousands of units of housing."
Auger said the redevelopment of Iwilei Center will deliver 800 to 900 housing units on the four-acre site, and the city anticipates another 2,000 housing units in the area beyond, which also will include retail and commercial spaces. The broader redevelopment area encompasses about 17 acres.
"It's really going to be developing a community where you can live, work and play," he said.
A year ago, the city selected DTL, a Honolulu-based Native Hawaiian-owned strategy, planning and design firm — in partnership with Toronto-based BDP Quadrangle, Honolulu-based Wilson Okamoto Corp. and Tokyo-based Nippon Koei — to prepare a masterplan for the Kūwili Station Transit-Oriented Development redevelopment area.
That masterplanning work is underway now, Auger says, and goal is to have that finished by the end of the year he told ASD.
EAH Housing was selected late last year to redevelop Iwilei Center.
The affordability and availability of housing has long been an issue across the Islands. Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corp.'s 2024 Hawai‘i Housing Planning study, which was published last year, found that Hawai‘i needs an estimated 64,490 additional housing units by 2027 to meet demand. In Honolulu, 25,710 units are needed.
The city also has taken other steps to address the island's housing needs.
Partnering with the development community to build housing on city-owned lands is one component of the three-year strategic housing plan, which you can find here.
Preferred negotiating partners have been selected for the redevelopment of a number of city-owned properties, including 1615 Ala Wai Blvd. and 436 Ena Road in Waikīkī, 130 S. Beretania St. in Downtown Honolulu and Kapolei lots 2 to 5.
The city announced in March that it had selected a preferred development partner 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 1907 Eluwene St. "as part of its long-term strategy to create affordable housing opportunities along the Dillingham corridor," DHLM said in an announcement last week.
In that announcement, the city said DHLM was set to begin environmental abatement of the site this week to prepare for demolition. Demolition is set to start the first week of August and is expected to last about two months, a recent announcement noted. All work will happen during standard construction hours, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
R.H.S. Lee, Inc. will perform the demolition and Unitek Insulation will conduct the environmental abatement work.
More recently, the city in April closed on a Chinatown property to expand housing opportunities within the city's urban core.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
