Mounting discoveries of historic Native Hawaiian burials have created challenges for Kawaiaha‘o Church and the city’s planned rail line in Kakaako, and now a third construction project in the area must deal with the sensitive issue.

Contractors excavating a foundation for the 43-story Wai­ho­nua at Kewalo condominium near the corner of Wai­manu and Piikoi streets recently unearthed 19 sets of human remains, or iwi, that appear to include burials of royalty.

A decision is pending over whether to leave the iwi in place or relocate them to a state-approved burial preserve on another portion of the property.

Kewalo Development LLC, an affiliate of Hono­lulu-based Alexander & Baldwin Inc. that is developing Wai­ho­nua, said it would be premature to speculate on whether the iwi finding will delay or force redesigns of a tower that was previously redesigned to avoid an earlier iwi discovery.

The project broke ground a couple of months ago and had locked in $172 million in sales under binding contracts for units as of Sept. 9. That represents 70 percent of the tower, or 239 of 341 units, which sold for an average of about $700,000.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ State Historic Preservation Division is charged with determining what the ultimate treatment of the 19 burials will be after considering views from the Oahu Island Burial Council and cultural descendents of the area.

Lance Parker, a vice president with A&B’s land development subsidiary A&B Properties, said Thursday that the company has closely worked with cultural descendents for more than two years, going back to before A&B bought the 1.7-acre site.

"We’re trying to be as supportive and cooperative as possible," he said. "We know it’s a culturally sensitive area."

A&B knew there was a significant chance that iwi lay beneath the surface of the project site, in part because construction of a neighboring tower, Ko‘o­lani, disturbed seven sets of remains in 2003 and 2004.

A prior owner of the Wai­ho­nua site conducted an archaeological inventory survey that didn’t encounter any iwi, Parker said. However, A&B did its own survey prior to buying the land in 2010 and encountered 27 burials in one area.

A&B committed to preserving those burials where they were discovered and turning the area into a landscaped preserve with a sloping mound bordered by a stone wall and native vegetation.

The plan to preserve the 27 burials in place led A&B to redesign Wai­ho­nua. "We moved the building, we shrank the building footprint to come up with a design that was allowed (under permitting rules)," Parker said. "It was substantial."

Then during exploration of a layer of ground to recover any Hawaiian cultural artifacts, six more sets of iwi were discovered, and the Historic Preservation Division determined those iwi should be moved to the preserve area it approved.

After construction began about two months ago on excavating the ground for the building’s foundation, a single set of iwi was unearthed. Then, within the past few weeks, 18 sets of iwi were discovered in another area.

Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, chairwoman of the Oahu Island Burial Council, said Thursday that A&B took a proactive approach to its project with early consultations. But the fate of the recent iwi discovery is undecided, and could be complicated because two burials were discovered with whale-tooth necklaces, indicating they were royalty, or alii.

Wong-Kalu said that because 18 sets of iwi were concentrated in one area, it suggests they all belong to the same family. "You wouldn’t have burials surrounding alii being maka­ai­nana," she said. "You didn’t bury common folk with alii."

At a burial council meeting Wednesday, some descendents expressed differing views on how the latest iwi should be treated. Their comments, along with views of council members and other stakeholders, will be considered by the Historic Preservation Division, which decides how to treat iwi discovered during construction after an archeological survey has been completed.

Parker said work in the burial area has been halted, but can proceed in other areas, and that so far there has been no major construction delay. Parker also said A&B is excavating a large part of the ground for the building’s foundation by hand so as not to damage any iwi that might be present.

A&B’s projection for completing construction on Wai­ho­nua is 2014 or 2015.

The Waihonua site was once part of a 17-acre parcel known as 404 Piikoi on which an investment trust of the South Pacific republic of Nauru gained state approval in 1984 to build five towers.

The trust, Nauru Phosphate Royalties (Hono­lulu) Development Inc., built the luxury Nauru Tower in 1991 and largely satisfied an affordable-housing requirement by completing the moderately priced tower 1133 Wai­manu in 1996.

Nauru Phosphate completed a third tower, Hawa­iki, in 1999, but encountered financial difficulties and sold the remaining two tower sites in 2003 to Miami-based developer Crescent Heights, which completed a fourth tower, Ko‘o­lani, in 2006.

Crescent Heights advanced plans for the last tower, between Hawa­iki and Ko‘o­lani, but abandoned the project amid a waning real estate market and sold the site to a California developer in 2007. A&B bought the property in mid-2010 for $16 million and brought the project to market as the first high-rise condo to break ground in Hono­lulu since the recession.