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[{"type":"text","text":"No one is more committed than this dog..."}]

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<title>Daily Smiles: Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026</title>

No one is more committed than this dog...

Daily Smiles: Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

 No one is more committed than this dog...

Ray Tsuchiyama

Real Estate

Columnists

After Hurricane Lala, residents of a Waikīkī high-rise waited 

for power and water to be restored while nearby buildings were already back online, due to its own flooded circuitry.

One storm. One outage. But it points to a much larger question: What happens when Hawaiʻi's aging condominium buildings can no longer keep up with the demands placed on them?

Walk through any 1960s or ’70s-era condominium tower in Waikīkī or Makiki, and you are looking at a building entering a difficult stage of its economic life.

Many of Hawaiʻi's condominium buildings are now 40, 50 or even 60 years old. The issue is not necessarily their structural lives; it is that major systems installed decades ago — plumbing, electrical, elevators and roofs — are increasingly expensive to maintain or replace.

The bills are not small. Some owners are facing special assessments of $50,000, $100,000 or more per unit for repairs and replacement of aging building systems.

And for many owners, their condominium may be the largest asset they own, yet they face a large bill for a unit they may eventually have difficulty selling.

Here is what is missing: Hawaiʻi has a law for terminating a condominium.

 It does not have a practical legal mechanism for turning majority agreement into redevelopment.

Hawaiʻi law provides a process for condominium termination for liquidation through a court-ordered partition sale, which does not address the collective-action problem when a large majority of owners want to sell or rebuild but a minority does not.

Owners are not simply choosing repair over redevelopment.

They often have no practical redevelopment

And zoning can make the problem worse. Tear down an older, grandfathered tower, and current rules may permit less density than the building already contains. A developer may be willing to take on the project, but if the replacement building cannot generate enough value to pay for land, construction, financing and owner buyouts, there is no deal.

The state has never built a door for a redevelopment pathway with development incentives.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Other places have."}]

New South Wales, Australia, created a statutory

 that addresses the collective-action problem. A supermajority can initiate a renewal plan, with a court reviewing the process and protections for dissenting owners, including compensation based on independently determined value.

Florida provides another useful example, although its experience also demonstrates how minority-owner protections can complicate redevelopment and generate litigation.

Japan has gone further in combining condominium-reconstruction mechanisms with urban-planning tools that can allow additional development potential to help finance replacement buildings.

The lesson is not that Hawaiʻi should copy any one system. It is that the problem has already been addressed elsewhere in pieces — and Hawaiʻi needs two of them.

Chapter 514B should be amended to create a condominium-renewal process under which a substantial supermajority of owners could approve a redevelopment plan, subject to independent valuation, notice, financial disclosure, and judicial review.

The principle should be straightforward: dissenting owners deserve fair value and due process, but they should not possess an indefinite veto over a transaction approved by an overwhelming majority and determined to satisfy statutory protections.

A specialized condominium-renewal docket within Hawaiʻi's existing Circuit Court system could develop expertise in these cases without creating an entirely new court.

Second, a way to make the redevelopment economically possible.

Even an approved redevelopment plan is worthless if the replacement building does not pencil.

This is where land economics becomes critical.

Hawaiʻi should establish a statewide statutory framework allowing qualifying older condominiums to seek a defined redevelopment incentive — potentially additional floor area or other development flexibility — when specific criteria are met.

The criteria could include building age, documented physical or financial obsolescence, a professional structural or capital-needs assessment, an approved renewal plan and demonstrated economic feasibility.

This should not become a blank check for developers or a wholesale rewrite of county zoning. The Legislature would establish the rules and eligibility standards; the appropriate authority would administer them against objective criteria; and the courts would address owner rights and the fairness of the renewal process.

The objective would not be to guarantee redevelopment. Some buildings will still be too small, too expensive, or too constrained to make the numbers work. That is a market outcome. But Hawaiʻi should 

This would not apply neatly to every building. Leasehold condominiums present a different problem because the underlying ground lease and landowner's rights must also be addressed. That is a separate legal and economic issue.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Every component already exists somewhere."}]

New South Wales built a mechanism for collective action. Florida offers experience with owner buyouts, dissenters and the litigation that can follow. Japan demonstrates how redevelopment law and additional development potential can sometimes work together to finance replacement buildings. (More on this in future columns.)

Hawaiʻi already knows how to establish special land-use frameworks (e.g. HCDA) when a public policy objective demands them.

What Hawaiʻi lacks is a system that connects these pieces.

We do not need the government to rebuild every aging condominium. We do not need to guarantee developers a profit. And we should not take away the legitimate property rights of minority owners.

But we should give a willing majority of owners a legitimate path to discover whether redevelopment makes more sense than another special assessment.

Hawaiʻi's aging condominium problem is not simply about old buildings. It is about what happens when private property, collective ownership, land economics, and outdated law collide.

Hawaiʻi does not have a shortage of aging condos. It has a shortage of options for renewing them.

That is a shortage the Legislature can fix.

For a parent hoping to pass a Makiki condo to the next generation, the question is no longer simply what the unit is worth. It is whether the building around it has a future.

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Ray Tsuchiyama’s series explores one central question: How does Hawai‘i use the wealth and land it already has to create its next economic future? He can be reached at 

Honolulu high rises i Stock 2276409033

<title>Hawaiʻi doesn't have a condo crisis, it has a missing law</title>

Tens of thousands of people in Hawai‘i live in apartment towers that are now a half-century old, or older. Owners face sometimes ruinously expensive assessments to repair or replace aging building systems. Under Hawai‘i law they're stuck. There's no provision for owners to take the radical step of collectively selling their units and handing the building off to someone else to redevelop. Other places have such laws, here's how they work.

Hawaiʻi doesn't have a condo crisis, it has a missing law

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

A few years removed from electrifying the high school football scene at Kahuku, Kainoa "Kaikai" Carvalho was hoping for a different reintroduction. 

latest edition of EA Sports' College Football video game

 franchise was released, the first time Carvalho was set to be featured in the game. When he saw himself in the game, he couldn't believe it. Not in a good way. 

An image of Carvalho appeared to show the 5-foot-6, 165-pound University of Hawai‘i slot receiver with a comically large head. Despite the inaccuracy, Carvalho laughed it off and 

, amassing hundreds of thousands of views. 

"I thought it was just funny. I've seen so many funny comments on it online, and some random people stop by and they're like, 'Hey, you're the EA character guy.' It's fun," Carvalho told Aloha State Daily. "It's good to be in a game that I grew up playing, and I think it was just funny and it was a good conversation starter for a lot of people that saw me and it's fun to joke around with the guys."

In exchange for the use of his name, image and likeness, Carvalho was paid $1,500 by EA Sports, along with a free copy of the game. "Still not a bad deal," Carvlaho says of the extra cash, but he hopes EA can make some updates soon. 

"I hope that EA saw it and will update my character, but I haven't heard anything from EA, and this is my shoutout to EA that hopefully they can update the picture," Carvalho said. 

On the field, Carvalho's game has been no joke. As a junior at Kahuku High School, he was the 2021 consensus Hawai‘i state player of the year after scoring 12 touchdowns on offense and five on special teams. He signed with the University of Utah following his senior season, then went on a two-year mission 

in Hokkaido, Japan. By the time he returned, the Utes reshuffled their offensive coaching staff, and Carvalho decided to sign with Hawai‘i instead. 

In 2025, Carvalho appeared briefly in two games as he nursed a hamstring injury. During practices, he was mostly seen working on the side with UH strength coach Bobby Thomas. 

"It's all part of the process. Taking two years off, it's a lot to just get right back into the fire," said Carvalho, who ran routes in the morning during his mission in Japan in an attempt to stay sharp. "I had really great mentors like Pofele Ashlock, Nick Cencale, playing a huge role in me just getting to know the offense, understand the offense. Me and Titan (Lacaden) were young bucks last year, and just taking this step now that we can hopefully make a bigger impact on the offense."

All camp, Carvalho has been one of the standout performers, impressing with his ability to get open and make challenging catches, even if a ball is underthrown or a defender is draped on him. 

"Just getting used to my body again, and I feel bigger, faster, stronger. We have those (

 trackers on us now, and so you know the speed's getting there," Carvalho said. "I increased a couple of my numbers in the weight room, and so it's a huge testament to what Bobby Thomas has done with us in the offseason."

In assessing Hawai‘i's receiver room prior to the 2026 season opener at Stanford on Saturday, UH receivers coach Jared Ursua agreed that he has quite a few players cut from the same cloth as Carvalho heading into the season: local high school star from the Islands, sure-handed receiver, not the tallest in height but the type of gritty player that resonates with fans. Particularly in UH's slot receiver rotation, the Rainbow Warriors have Carvalho, 

, Waipahu's Tama Uiliata and Kamehameha's Blaze Kamoku to name a few.

"It just shows what this team is about," Carvalho said. "We want to stay home and we want to build this culture and this team up and just send a message that the best players can play at Hawai‘i and we can put Hawai‘i on the map."

Added Ursua: "Tight group, very close. They enjoy one another. The (local high school football) banter never stops. They're just constantly on each other. ... They're just a very close group. They're connected. I think they love each other for how much work they've put in, but they also appreciate each other for how much they're pushing one another because they've always respected each other and competed."

As for the slot receiver group and the position as a whole, Hawai‘i head coach Timmy Chang announced on the first day of fall camp that star receiver Pofele Ashlock was working his way back from injury. When asked about Ashlock's status heading into the Stanford game, Ursua says he's "flying around, he's moving, he's well ahead of schedule. ... I hope that Stanford's safeties are ready for him because he might just pop up."

Kaikai Carvalho 082626

<title>Kainoa 'Kaikai' Carvalho adds more excitement to UH football's receiver rotation</title>

Carvalho, who redshirted in 2025, was the 2021 state consensus high school football player of the year at Kahuku before going on a two-year mission to Japan.

Daily Smiles: Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

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Daily Smiles: Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

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