Kamehameha Schools has partnered with an Oregon developer to carry out plans for a Kakaako apartment building reserved for tenants earning no more than Honolulu’s median income.
The $40 million project to be developed by Portland, Ore.-based Gerding Edlen will feature 209 rentals from studios to two-bedroom units reserved for households earning up to about $67,000 for a single person and $96,000 for a family of four.
Monthly rental rates under state guidelines could be as much as $1,677 for a studio, $1,797 for a one-bedroom unit and $2,157 for a two-bedroom unit.
The six-story building with 280 parking stalls along with retail and restaurant space is part of a project Kamehameha Schools announced in July called Keauhou Lane. At that time the landowner announced details for only half the project — a 40-story condominium tower fronted by midrise townhomes called Keauhou Place with 450 units to be developed by local developer Stanford Carr.
The condos must be affordable to and reserved for households earning up to 140 percent of the median income, which equates to about $94,000 for a single person and $134,000 for a family of four. Unit prices are projected to start in the high $300,000s.
Paul Kay, director of development for Kamehameha Schools, said rental housing reserved for moderate-income occupants will add to the character of a growing residential area that includes 29 acres the trust intends to redevelop into a neighborhood dubbed Our Kaka‘ako.
"Reserved rental housing is an important component of Our Kaka‘ako and contributes to the diversity of the community," he said in a statement.
The rental apartments will occupy 1.6 acres of the block bounded by South, Pohukaina, Halekauwila and Keawe streets. Carr’s estimated $250 million project will occupy 2.4 acres of the site, which is currently used as a parking lot.
The two pieces of housing on the block will be connected by a mauka-makai promenade that will create a midblock pathway that also connects to a rail station planned by the city. About 25 percent of the block will be dedicated to public open space, the trust said.
Keauhou Lane is planned for one of nine blocks in Kakaako envisioned for residential and commercial development under a master plan by Kamehameha Schools, which is Hawaii’s largest private landowner with $10 billion in assets it uses to generate revenue for educating students of Hawaiian ancestry.
The trust’s Kakaako master plan calls for seven residential towers with up to 2,750 units and 300,000 square feet of commercial space.
An initial piece of the master plan completed in 2012 was a 54-unit affordable rental building called Six Eighty Ala Moana that Kamehameha Schools converted from an old office building.
Two other pieces that are approved for development but have yet to start construction are a tower complex with 470 condos called The Collection on the former site of a CompUSA store at the makai end of South Street, and a retail complex dubbed SALT to be created mostly by renovating old buildings on a block next to The Collection.
Other parts of the master plan include three luxury condo towers fronting Ala Moana Boulevard.
Keauhou Lane will largely satisfy a requirement to make 20 percent of all high-rise units within Our Kaka‘ako affordable to residents with moderate incomes under rules of the state agency regulating development in Kakaako.
That agency, the Hawaii Community Development Authority, has received an application from the trust for Keauhou Lane but has yet to schedule the first of two public hearings.
If Kamehameha Schools receives approval for Keauhou Lane, it anticipates starting construction early next year and completing work in 2016.
