"I gotta be nosy. What's going on?" a man asks, approaching the small crowd gathered Friday morning on Ena Road in Waikīkī.
"We're going to be knocking the building down with robots," Kevin Auger, director of the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Housing and Land Management responds.
It seems like an outrageous statement, but the city is making way for the future — in more ways than one.
Demolition is now underway at 436 Ena Road and the city on Friday showcased a specialized, remotely operated demolition robot that will be used to dismantle the existing building there. The demolition will pave way for a future affordable housing development.
"This is a great day for the City and County of Honolulu," Mayor Rick Blangiardi told the crowd. "This has been years in the making and I will tell you, for us, it's very fulfilling. ... I'm really excited about how we're going to take this down because that was one of the biggest challenges we had — dealing with this density, the proximity, if you will, to the adjacent properties."
Blangiardi says the use of robotics is "really incredible."
"I feel like [it is] one more step, one more new dimension when we talk about modernizing the city and all the things that we're trying to do to move us into the time zone we're in."
The city said in an announcement Friday that the remotely operated robots — manufactured by Sweden-based Husqvarna — are designed to dismantle existing structures in confined spaces while allowing operators to work from a safer distance.
Blangiardi, donning a hard hat and a vest, took control of the remote Friday morning — and took the first swipes at the building.
The city acquired the 33-unit property in 2018 using federal Community Development Block Grant funding to provide housing for low-income residents and people experiencing homelessness, the announcement noted.
The approximately 6,000-square-foot property includes a vacant eight-story building and a detached parking structure. Final unit counts and affordability levels will be determined as plans and financing are finalized, the city says, noting, too, that the project also will undergo community engagement, environmental review and other land use approvals as the redevelopment moves forward.
“436 Ena Road presents a valuable opportunity to reinvest in city-owned land and preserve affordability in the heart of Waikīkī,” Kevin Auger, director of the Honolulu Department of Housing and Land Management, said in the announcement. “Demolition is an important milestone, but our focus is on what comes next — creating a high-quality development that maximizes long-term affordability, makes efficient use of this property and delivers lasting value to the Waikīkī community.”
Auger told the crowd on Friday that the robots are small and compact, and will go up through the elevator shafts.
"They go up on the roof and start demoing down," he explained. "That debris is loaded up into the elevator shaft, part of the way. We don't have room here for large trucks. We don't have room here for a large crane. So that was an extraordinary solution."
The city says its demolition contractor R.H.S. Lee Inc. will begin structural demolition the week of Nov. 2. Demolition work and site clearing is expected to continued through February 2027, with work taking place during standard construction hours. Safety fencing will remain in place throughout the project.
In July 2025, the city selected EAH Housing as its preferred negotiating partner, with Core Tech as the co-developer, for the redevelopment of this, property. However, Auger told Aloha State Daily that the partnership has since dissolved and the project will have to be rebid. The city will try to issue that request by the end of the year, he says, noting that it is not expected to delay the project.
Partnering with the development community to build housing on city-owned lands is one of the components of a strategic housing plan the city unveiled last year. You can find the plan here.
As ASD reported earlier this month, the city also was winding down demolition work at the former Dee Lite Bakery site in Kalihi, which also will be redeveloped. That property is "envisioned as a transit-oriented affordable rental housing development, with preliminary estimates suggesting the site could accommodate approximately 150 units," Auger told ASD at that time.
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
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