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Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Bro isn't into the diet....."}]

Smile 26 9 7

<title>Daily Smile: Monday, Sep. 7, 2026</title>

Bro isn't into the diet.....

Daily Smile: Monday, Sep. 7, 2026

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

MĀNOA — Spencer McLachlin estimates he's been inside the Stan Sheriff Center over 500 times since the facility opened in the fall of 1994. 

, both University of Hawai‘i Circle of Honor inductees, Spencer McLachlin would sit in the stands during UH volleyball matches as his father served as TV color commentator alongside Jim Leahey on K5 broadcasts. Wahine volleyball matches were extra special for the McLachlin family, as Beth is still remembered as one of the program's pioneers. A star setter on the 1974 and 1975 teams, Beth McLachlin added the 

With his parents guiding him, Spencer McLachlin went on to become a star athlete himself. While he was a two-time all-state basketball player at Punahou, volleyball was where he truly shined. A 6-foot-7 outside hitter, Spencer McLachlin was a starter in multiple tournaments for the U.S. junior national team. He was one of the sport's top recruits by the time he was set to graduate high school in 2007, and he chose Stanford among his many offers. 

McLachlin started all 105 matches he appeared in for the Cardinal from 2008 to 2011, which included a national championship in 2010. With aspirations of becoming a coach one day, McLachlin helped out with Bay-to-Bay Volleyball Club as he finished up a master's degree with Stanford. 

After a brief professional playing career in Greece, McLachlin returned to Hawai‘i and joined Charlie Wade's UH men's staff as a volunteer assistant in 2014 while he taught at Punahou. He was then elevated to full-time assistant for the Rainbow Warriors in 2015. 

From there, McLachlin was an assistant coach for the Cal women's team from 2016 to 2017, an assistant coach on the UCLA men's staff from 2018 to 2021, the associate head coach for Indiana in 2022, then the associate head coach for USC from 2023 to 2025. His first opportunity to become a head coach was officially announced on Dec. 29, 2025, when UC San Diego named him the new women's head coach. 

On Sunday, the final day of the 2026 OUTRIGGER Invitational, Spencer McLachlin's UC San Diego squad went up against host Hawai‘i to close the tournament. Father Chris was courtside doing color commentary for K5 with Kanoa Leahey, Jim's son, while Beth McLachlin watched intently. As Spencer competed against the University of Hawai‘i for the first time as a head coach, he proved the McLachlin family can still have firsts in its charmed volleyball journey. 

Though the Tritons were just two points away from winning in four sets, the Rainbow Wahine rallied to take Sunday's match 22-25, 25-15, 21-25, 26-24, 15-8. UCSD led as late as 23-22 in the fourth set before UH forced deuce. The 'Bows, who sprinted to a 14-3 lead in the fifth set, went 3-0 over the weekend and improved to 4-2 for the 2026 campaign. The Tritons, meanwhile, fell to 2-4 in McLachlin's debut season and were 0-3 during the weekend. 

"A lot of emotions," Spencer McLachlin told Aloha State Daily following the match, with some of his players seen wiping tears away in the distance. "I feel for my team that fought so hard, but it's life. Learning isn't linear. It's not gonna happen overnight. It's gonna take some really hard lessons, and we had three really hard lessons in the three matches this weekend. I wish it ended up a little bit differently, but that's volleyball. That's why everyone everyone loves it. I'm proud of our girls."

Over a dozen family members were in attendance to support Spencer McLachlin on Sunday. Additionally, a handful of friends from his O‘ahu childhood, including Stanford teammate Kawika Shoji, were there to offer encouragement. 

"I love this place," Spencer McLachlin said of the Stan. "My mom's got her plaque up there in the Circle of Honor. This place means so much to me. It is a top five place to play in the world, and it's because of the fans. It's because of the tradition. ... Just so many great coaches. The volleyball community here is so great. And if I grew up anywhere else, I probably wouldn't have fallen in love with the sport like I did growing up here."

In the heat of the match, Spencer McLachlin admits he gave a quick look to his dad and couldn't help but smile. After the match, Spencer's three young children walked towards the announcer's table. 

"There's Papa," Spencer pointed out to his keiki. 

Chris McLachlin knew that calling Sunday's match came with added responsibility. The school he loves was facing a team coached by his son, and he knew he had to be impartial to both. 

I started out by telling Kanoa if I lapse into nepotism at all, please correct me," Chris McLachlin joked with ASD after the match. "I thought that for the weekend, (Spencer) was really proud of how they performed. They could have won the tournament, you know. They were very close to being 3-0. Instead, they're 0-3. But a lot of good lessons learned, and it's a different kind of proud that he is sharing so much of himself with those girls."

The four years Spencer McLachlin played for Stanford aligned directly with the four seasons current Rainbow Wahine head coach 

 took the floor for the Hawai‘i men's team following a redshirt year. Though McLachlin 

went 8-1 as a player against the 'Bows, Walker never made it easy, leading UH in kills the vast majority of those matchups. 

"Ton of respect for him, just because I know how hard of a worker he is," Walker said following the match. "We knew we were going to get their best shot and they were going to be prepared. That's just who he is and how he operates. I think we both made each other better tonight."

Despite growing up an athletic prodigy of sorts, the coaches in Spencer McLachlin's life are the reason why he set his heart early on becoming one himself one day. 

 was his club coach when he was 10, and Spencer McLachlin remembers how the legendary former Wahine volleyball coach taught him how to pass, one of the underrated skills in the sport. McLachlin joked that with a career record of 2-4 thus far in his debut season, he has 1,200 to go to catch Shoji's career mark of 1202-204-1. 

But if there's one coach who truly made his mark on Spencer, it's his father, who led Punahou to 11 state titles in boys volleyball and three in boys basketball. 

"He's my biggest mentor," Spencer McLachlin says of Chris McLachlin. "Him caring for the athletes and the trust that you build by getting to know them, he has incredible relationships with all of his former athletes and if I could be a 10th of the coach that he is, then I'll have a great career. I think he's a wizard, and I'm so blessed to have him be my mentor." 

Following a brief chat after the match, Chris and Spencer McLachlin went their separate ways, Spencer eager to build on the career he's wanted for as long as he can remember, knowing dad is always a phone call away. 

"He was always asking questions about coaching strategies, so I thought maybe he's gonna be a coach someday," Chris McLachlin says. "He always seemed to glean the most from all the coaches he had when he played in the junior national team. He just always seemed to be gleaning little pearls of wisdom about coaching. And I think when he was very young, he followed me for my basketball and volleyball career, and it always seemed to be not just a kid at the gym, but more like a kid learning at the gym. He was always picking up something and asking questions. He wants to be a good coach in the worst way, and just the art of coaching means a lot to him."

Spencer McLachlin 090626

<title>Punahou alum Spencer McLachlin returns home for emotional weekend as new UCSD coach</title>

Both of McLachlin's parents are in the UH Circle of Honor. He estimates he's been inside the Stan Sheriff Center over 500 times. On Sunday, for the first time as a head coach, he went up against his childhood team.

Punahou alum Spencer McLachlin returns home for emotional weekend as new UCSD coach

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Crime & Courts

Columnists

On the last day of August, a woman pulled two kitchen knives from a shopping bag on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan and used them on two people, 20 seconds apart.

One was a 68-year-old man coming up from the subway at 41st Street with his wife. He survived. The other, a block north, was Erin Piacenti, a young mother on her first day back at work from maternity leave. She died.

Pamela Cisneros walked on toward a police substation with the knives still in her hands. For four minutes officers told her to drop them. She would not. Then she was dead, shot by police.

By evening, everyone who read the news knew why. Cisneros was mentally ill. Her family said so, her old Facebook posts said so, police sources said so, and the newspapers said so with a kind of relief, because it meant the event had an explanation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"I want to look at that explanation."}]

Cisneros had written on Facebook last November that the end times had come. Among her signs, the 

 reported, she listed “the diminished love of people to the point of stabbing others for no reason.”

She wrote that Satan, knowing his time is short, wants to take as many souls to hell as possible. That’s why some people hear voices telling them to kill.

Nine months later she stabbed two strangers. I am not going to diagnose her from her posts; enough people are doing that. But she showed concern about hearing voices, and she wrote that those voices come from the devil.

In Plymouth, Massachusetts, a jury spent seven days deliberating over Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury nurse who strangled her three small children in January 2023 and then tried to end her own life. Her lawyers said she suffered postpartum psychosis and that a voice told her to do it. On Friday the judge 

. Eleven jurors were ready to acquit. One was not.

The public debate is over whether hearing that voice excuses her. What strikes me is how little fight there is over the premise. The pundits agree that mental illness produced the voice. The only question is whether Clancy is responsible for heeding its instruction.

But if she did hear a voice, was it caused by mental illness?

Every human culture before 1800 had a name for a voice that tells you to kill your children, and the name was not “symptom.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The Gospels are almost casual about this."}]

When the crowds came to Jesus at Capernaum, Mark says they “brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons,” and he healed the one and cast out the other.

Casting out demons was not the exclusive province of Christians. Outsiders also got into the trade. In Ephesus, seven sons of a Jewish priest named Sceva went about expelling spirits in the name of “the Jesus whom Paul proclaims,” having seen that the method worked. One spirit answered them: “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” Then it beat all seven of them out of the house, leaving them naked and wounded. Nobody in Ephesus was arguing about neurotransmitters.

And once, the disciples failed. A father brought his son, seized since childhood by a demon that threw him into fire and water, and men who had cast out demons before could not cast out this one. Jesus told them why. “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” And then Jesus commanded the spirit to leave. It did.

If these stories seem fantastical, it is because we live in a disenchanted world. Nearly every culture has made room for the supernatural, but ours prefers to reduce everything to chemistry. We hold to this explanation with a faith that would shame a monk. The chemistry cannot be seen. And the cures built on it do not reliably work. But we persist.

Consider the pills for depression. A whole class of drugs works by tinkering with serotonin, a chemical in the brain. These SSRIs help many people, modestly. They also carry a federal warning that they can increase suicidal thinking.

 that psychiatric drugs are among the leading causes of death for the elderly across the West. His critics say he overstates the case, but there is a case.

The drugs are a gamble, and everyone involved knows it. So their television commercials end with a voice reading from a long list of side effects. The list includes 

: the drug may “increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some people 24 years of age and younger, especially within the first few months of treatment or when the dose is changed.”

A drug that can either cure depression or cause suicide is like a ball dropped into a spinning roulette wheel. Parents who place their faith in such drugs and the doctors prescribing them are gambling with their children’s lives.

Lindsay Clancy and her former husband are both suing the professionals who treated her for depression in the years before she killed her children. Insurance companies will likely push the defendants to settle out of court. And whenever the courts are done with Clancy, everyone will go back to business as usual.

But she claims she heard a voice, and I believe her.

Her mistake was to obey that voice, and she should bear the consequence of her heinous crimes. Scripture never once lets the tempter assume the guilt of the tempted.

Christians have erred in two directions. Many stopped believing in demons a generation before the psychiatrists did, and now define “mental health” exactly as the world does. Others tell a bipolar woman to pour her lithium down the sink and come to the Wednesday deliverance service instead.

None of this is an argument against medicine. In some cases of mental illness there is a real chemical issue. A person is deficient in some vitamin or mineral, and a supplement fixes the problem. Sometimes a neurotransmitter runs high or low, a receptor stops answering, and the mind begins to hear things. Some medicine works. But not all cases respond to medical treatment.

The trouble comes with the diversity of human response. Not everyone whose brain misfires hears a voice. Not everyone who hears a voice hears it say 

Chemistry alone cannot account for these differences. And a focus on invisible brain chemistry leads us to ignore what’s right before our eyes.

Human sinfulness is enough to account for mothers who murder their children. But this does not mean the devil is absent. Scripture says that he “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Blaming the devil would not be accepted as a defense in court, but blaming neurotransmitters is. That tells us where our superstitions lie.

Getty Images 2292483717 16x9

<title>Pamela Cisneros, Lindsay Clancy, and the voice that said ‘kill’</title>

A woman pulled two kitchen knives from a shopping bag on Seventh Avenue and used them on two strangers. By nightfall everyone knew why, and no one argued. ASD opinion columnist Sterling Higa on the explanation for mental illness that every culture but ours took for granted.

Pamela Cisneros, Lindsay Clancy, and the voice that said ‘kill’

WEB square crop Hayley Lehman Headshot RGZ1636

Haley Lehman

Aloha Spirit

Mike Shiroma’s neighborhood in the Pālolo Valley sounds different than it did when he was a kid, all because of the invasive coqui frog.

The quarter-sized tree frog native to Puerto Rico calls from dusk to dawn. They are one of the loudest frogs in the world, with calls reaching up to 100 decibels, similar to a lawnmower or motorcycle. They hitchhiked to Hawaiʻi Island in 1988 and have since set up colonies on Oʻahu in Pālolo Valley, Waimānalo and the Kuliʻouʻou summit.

Shiroma said he’s witnessed the number of frogs grow from a handful to dozens to thousands, and now estimates that there are 15,000-20,000 coqui frogs in Pālolo Valley.

Shiroma described the coqui frog noise as a “permanent, audio graffiti.”

“They're changing the environment forever,” he said.

Sidney Lynch called the noise deafening. She noticed the occassional frog washing down the Waiʻōmaʻo Stream and would call the Department of Agriculture to catch it. She offered to help after she noticed more and more frogs washing down the stream in 2025.

She co-founded Pālolo Coqui, a group of volunteers that meets multiple times a week to catch and kill coqui in the Pālolo Valley. Volunteers have caught 6,085 since they started in March.

“Even though it’s only concentrated in a five street area, it’s getting much noisier and they can spread,” Lynch said. “At this point, if there’s the chance to eradicate them, we may as well try.”

When volunteers came to Shiroma’s door with a flyer earlier this year, they joined forces to fight the invasion, going from what Shiroma called an “army of one” to a team. Shiroma has been hunting coqui frogs for years, and said he’s getting burned out and discouraged.

Volunteers wear long-sleeve neon shirts, long pants, headlamps and sturdy shoes, and carry plastic tubes, UV flashlights, citric acid solution and radios, and head out into the protected state land bordering the neighborhood to search for frogs.

Here’s how it works: Volunteers listen for the distinct “ko-KEE” call, approach the frog and place a long plastic tube on the frog. The frog jumps up and into the tube, and volunteers put the frog into a small bottle full of a citric acid solution where it is killed.

The male frogs like to hang out on logs and smooth leaves, such as monstera, pothos and heliconia. The “ko” of the coqui’s call asserts their territory and the “kee” calls for females.

Shiroma read scientific papers that said certain amphibians floresce under UV light. He tried it out, and found that certain UV light makes the coqui appear black and their eyes glow, allowing volunteers to look for frogs with UV flashlights when they are not calling.

“To me, this is the game changer. There’s no better discovery than this,” Shiroma said.

The coqui frog is one of 15 high priority pests that the 

 is monitoring. OISC is a project under the University of Hawaiʻi Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit that coordinates between communities, the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity and the Department of Land and Natural Resources. OISC first got involved with coqui frogs in Pālolo Valley in September 2024.

Robbie Snyder, a community engagement liaison with OISC, detailed the negative impacts coqui frogs can have on Hawaiʻi.

Coqui frogs have no natural predators on Hawaiʻi, so they get more dense than they would in their home country. Snyder said that one acre of land on Oʻahu can be home to 36,000 coqui.

The noise changes the soundscape of Oʻahu’s forests, Snyder said. Lynch said that the noise impacts resident’s quality of life.

Homeowners are required to disclose if there’s a coqui frog infestation on or near their property, which can drive down home prices.

Coqui frogs eat invertebrates, which damages Oʻahu’s native plants and can harm native plants when those plants aren’t being pollinated.

“Those insects also play vital pollinating services to our native plants, so when the frogs eat the native insects, we then lose things that can pollinate our native plants, and that has a cascading affect through the ecosystem,” Snyder said.

If snakes were introduced in Hawaiʻi, coqui frogs would provide a “massive food source” and aid their spread.

According to Snyder, the current goal is to contain coqui frogs until the state has the resources or better tools to eradicate them.

“With the resources we have right now, site level eradication of coqui is not possible,” Snyder said. “There isn’t enough funding, there’s not enough people, there’s not enough resources, and that’s even with the incredible community volunteers that we have, but we need more and we need a years-long commitment to funding.”

Snyder said that hand capture alone isn’t enough at this point to eradicate an infestation.

“There are small enough local populations that they haven’t become widespread. Hope is not lost with coqui frogs,” Snyder said.

OISC and state agencies spray a liquid combination of citric acid and water in an attempt to contain coqui frogs. Citric acid, which is found in citrus, some soft drinks and some candies, poses little risk to people and the environment, but is lethal to amphibians because they respirate through their skin.

OISC has been spraying 400 gallons of citric acid month in the Pālolo Valley for about two years and increased to spray twice monthly starting in August.

When coqui frogs infested Wahiawā in 2003, the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture and Biodiversity, the Oʻahu Army Natural Resources Program, the Department of Land and Natural Resources and OISC teamed up and eradicated the coqui infestation with a mix of citric spray and hand captures by 2007.

The volunteers in Pālolo have mixed opinions about the use of citric acid spray. Lynch believes citric acid spray is an effective tool and Shiroma believes it’s not as effective as hand capturing the frogs.

Shiroma called it an “agency failure” that the Department of Agriculture hasn’t dedicated more resources to preventing the spread of coqui.

“You guys are using the same broken playbook that’s not working and hasn’t worked for decades. This is not a new problem.” Shiroma. He advocated for the Department of Agriculture to make a dedicated team that works at night.

While the coqui frogs keep calling, Pālolo Valley neighbors will continue donning neon shirts and heading into the forest to stop them.

Coqui in Pālolo

<title>Volunteers battle coqui frog infestation in Pālolo Valley</title>

The Pālolo Coqui volunteer group is working alongside the Oʻahu Invasive Species Committee and state agencies to contain a coqui frog infestation in their neighborhood.

Volunteers battle coqui frog infestation in Pālolo Valley

Square Mike Brestovansky Headshot RGZ3736 Large

Michael Brestovansky

Government & Politics

 Hurricane conditions are expected in Kaua‘i County beginning this afternoon or evening, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Read this morning's bulletin in full 

 —  "Hurricane conditions are expected in Kaua‘i County beginning this afternoon or evening," said CPHC. "Wind speeds atop and on the windward and leeward sides of hills and mountains are often up to 30 percent stronger than the near-surface winds.  Tropical storm conditions are possible on O‘ahu beginning this afternoon."

 — Six to 10 inches forecasted for Kaua‘i, up to a possible maximum of 16 inches. For Hawai‘i Island, 4 to 8 inches of rain is expected with isolated totals of 12 inches possible. For Oahu and Maui county, 4 to 8 inches of rain is expected with isolated totals of 10 inches possible. "This rainfall may produce significant flash flooding and mudslides, especially across Kaua‘i county and portions of the Big Island."

 — From 2 for 4 feet for Kauai, with the greatest surge on the southern coasts. 

 — "Several tornadoes are possible near Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau this afternoon through tonight. A few tornadoes are also possible across the remainder of the Hawaiian Islands."

 site for additional Hurricane Lowell warnings.

.: Kauai and Ni‘i has remain under a Tropical Storm Watch, and those islands could be seeing tropical storm conditions beginning Monday, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Heavy rains are projected to arrive Sunday afternoon and last into next week for all the Islands, which could produce flash floods and mudslides, "especially on Kauai and portions of the Big Island."

Be careful of surf and rip currents. Lowell's large swells arriving through the next few days are expected to make both surf and rip currents life-threatening across parts of the Islands. "Surf along exposed portions of Kaua‘i County could also produce coastal flooding and inundation of low-lying areas Monday through Monday night."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"ORIGINAL STORY:"}]

Even though Hurricane Lowell’s forecasted path appears to be pulling westward, residents shouldn’t be complacent, warn state and county officials.

National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist John Bravender said Friday that 

 is continuing westward south of Hawai‘i, and is expected to make its northward turn around late Saturday or early Sunday.

“Any time you see a sharp turn like this in a hurricane track, it’s uncertain as to both where exactly it occurs and when exactly it occurs,” Bravender said. “For us, later is better. Later means it keeps going west and turns north later and tracks north farther west of the state.”

Current preliminary models by the National Weather Service show a trajectory where the eye of the storm passes to the west of Ni‘ihau. However, Bravender said there is still a wide margin for error in predicting the movement of a storm four days out, and that the heart of the storm could move an average of 150 miles off the projected course.

Even if Lowell maintains its predicted path, its winds will still reach Hawai‘i. Bravender said Lowell’s northward movement will expose it to high wind shear, which will reduce the hurricane’s power but also expand its wind field.

Consequently, Gov. Josh Green said Friday that emergency preparations are being made statewide, particularly in Kaua‘i County.  Green said the Agribusiness Development Corporation is monitoring reservoirs on Kaua‘i in anticipation of high winds and rainfall, while the Department of Health will open hurricane refuge centers on Kaua‘i.

Kaua‘i Mayor Derek Kawakami said he is in constant communication with the Robinson family — the owners of the island of Ni‘ihau — and added that he has “supreme confidence” that the island’s small population is well-prepared for Lowell.

“Our Ni‘ihauans are extremely resilient,” Kawakami said. “In fact, the Robinson family has come to our assistance more times than they’ve ever asked for help.”

Nonetheless, Green said the state Department of Human Services will keep hotel rooms available on Kaua‘i in case any Ni‘ihau residents need to relocate temporarily.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan, Adjutant General of the State of Hawai‘i Department of Defense, said 146 Hawai‘i National Guard personnel are standing by throughout the Islands, with more to come over the weekend. On Kaua‘i, 20 National Guard personnel are there already, with another 16 to come on Saturday, while several high-water vehicles and a potable water trailer have been brought to the island as well.

Green on Thursday signed an emergency proclamation in advance of Lowell authorizing the activation of the National Guard as needed to support disaster relief operations, and streamlines the process to secure and distribute resources among state agencies.

The emergency proclamation extends through Nov. 1, unless Green chooses to terminate it early. Therefore, the proclamation also covers potential impacts from Hurricane Karina, which approaches the state from the northeast, and Hurricane Marie, which is distantly to the east, near Baja California.

Bravender said Karina is expected to steadily weaken over the weekend and likely dissipate after Monday, without substantial impacts to the state beyond high surf on east-facing shores.

Kawakami said surf conditions this weekend are for expert surfers only, as Lowell brings powerful swells to south- and west-facing shores statewide.

Bravender said there is the possibility of intensely heavy rainfall this weekend, but estimates are still uncertain; he gave a ballpark estimate of about four to six inches of rain, with Kaua‘i and the Big Island getting about 10 inches of rain.

Kawakami said the approach of Lowell may bring traumatic memories of 1992’s Hurricane Iniki, the most powerful recorded storm to strike the state. He recommended that anyone feeling anxious to call the Hawai‘i CARES helpline at 988.

Lowell 5 am 7 Sep

<title>Tropical storm watch issues for O‘ahu from Lowell</title>

Even tornadoes could appear as Category 3 Hurricane Lowell travels north. A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau as well as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument from Nihoa to French Frigate Shoals.

Tropical storm watch issues for O‘ahu from Lowell

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Real Estate

Honolulu-based real estate development firm ProsPac Holdings got its start a decade ago.

Tony Chen, a statistician and recently appointed director of the company, said it began with his brother, William, and their late father. 

"It really started with my father, Mr. Chen's vision, when he first visited Hawai‘i and it was just very apparent to him that there was a real need for housing of all types, really, in Hawai‘i," he recently told Aloha State Daily. "He was a very entrepreneurial man and saw that there was a great opportunity to do what we do here."

The core of the company's founding is in its name, one Chen says his father challenged the brothers to come up with. The name ProsPac — a combination of Prosperity and Pacific — "really gets to the heart of what we do and I think it speaks to our mission."

"It's about developing real estate and seeing real estate development as an engine of economic growth," he says. "When we develop, it means building homes for people. It means building spaces for businesses, and it's this common denominator across every thriving economy. That's where we saw we could provide the greatest benefit to where we are today."

Chen was promoted to director of ProsPac Holdings in June. In that role, he oversees key development initiatives and supports the company's long-term vision, an announcement at that time noted.

According to that announcement, Chen was a senior statistical officer at the Valuation Office Agency of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, before

. He holds degrees from Queen’s University, Peking University and the London School of Economics and Political Science; serves on the board of the Boys & Girls Club of Hawai‘i; and is an active member of NAIOP Hawai‘i and Statisticians for Society, a pro bono entity that connects professional statisticians with charitable organizations.

The Honolulu-based ProsPac developed Azure Ala Moana, a mixed-use project in Honolulu's Ala Moana neighborhood with 330 condos, 78 rental apartments and commercial space.

Its next project is Kali‘u, a boutique luxury condo in the works in Kaka‘ako.

Kali‘u — whose name is derived from the Hawaiian word for “well-seasoned”— will be constructed adjacent to SALT in Our Kaka‘ako, Kamehameha Schools’ mixed-use community. ProsPac was chosen to redevelop the block, bordered by Ala Moana Boulevard, and Auahi, Coral and Cooke streets, 

 Master Plan was approved by the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority in 2009. The Our Kaka‘ako Master Plan encompasses 29 acres across nine city blocks of KS land in the neighborhood, its 

The redevelopment of Our Kaka‘ako’s first four blocks have already been completed as part of Increment I. That includes Keauhou Place and Keauhou Lane on Block A; The Flats at Pu‘unui and 400 Keawe on Block B; The Collection on Block E; and SALT at Our Kaka‘ako and 680 Ala Moana on Block F.

Development partners have been chosen for four of the five remaining blocks in Increment II, KS notes.

 on Block G, KS previously announced that Kaka‘ako Block C LLC, an affiliate of Stanford Carr Development, 

 on Block C, Koa Partners and Castle & Cooke Hawai‘i will develop 

 on Block D and Kobayashi Group will develop 

[{"type":"text","text":"Kali‘u will offer 285 one-, two- and three-bedroom units."}]

, health and wellness are set to be at the forefront of 

. The development will offer several new wellness technologies, including an intelligent robotic massage system from Aescape, the Ammortal Chamber, zero-gravity flotation tubs and other amenities.

Chen says the developer hopes to break ground on Kali‘u in early 2027, although some infrastructure work has already started. Work is anticipated to take about 30 months. Units went on sale to the public in early 2025.

Joining a bevy of local developers in Hawai‘i, Chen says, as expected, it wasn't easy for ProsPac to enter the development sphere here.

"Hawai‘i has every right to be questioning towards people who think they can just move here and start a development company," he told ASD. "I think from early on, the key behind our initial success was how deferential and respectful Mr. Chen was to the way things were done here and I think that earned us a lot of credit — and it is a lesson that still sticks with us today. Instead of trying to come in and change the way things are done, to be mindful and to understand the way things are done."

[{"type":"text","text":"The company's goals are simple."}]

"Fundamentally, we want to build great things and housing is, right now, something we want to build," Chen says. "And for Kali‘u, as you may have already seen with the programming of the building, the experience we're trying to deliver, as you can see with what we did with our showroom, is to create something that hasn't existed here before — a boutique, wellness-centered living experience. We believe in this mission that we're on because I think we've done our research, we've looked at the data and we understand this is what people want."

Tony chen prospac 072326

<title>Coming soon: ProsPac's newest residential tower, Kali‘u</title>

The Honolulu-based real estate development firm got its start a decade ago. Its next project will take shape within the Kamehameha Schools portion of Kaka‘ako.

Daily Smile: Monday, Sep. 7, 2026

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Daily Smile: Monday, Sep. 7, 2026

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