Bling!
The “grand penthouse” at the Waiea condominium tower rising in Kakaako now has an asking price after about two years of speculation.
The price: $36 million.
And if that’s too high, there’s a little smaller grand penthouse for $35 million.
Howard Hughes Corp., developer of Waiea at Ward Village, announced the prices as part of a plan to list its two grand penthouse units for sale with brokers. Previously the penthouse units were available, but the price hadn’t been listed among other units in the 171-unit tower.
Excluding the two penthouses, Waiea prices range from $1.4 million to $19.8 million and average $3.7 million.
“Now that the structure of Waiea is substantially complete, the extraordinary scale and uniqueness of these homes are becoming apparent,” Nick Vanderboom, Hawaii senior vice president of development for Hughes Corp., said in an email. “As a result, we believed the timing was right to begin officially marketing (the penthouses).”
Sales at Waiea began in early 2014, and about 90 percent of the units have been sold. Yet the absence of a price for the ultimate penthouse led to much speculation.
When sales began, some local real estate agents who attended a brokers event hosted by Waiea project broker Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties talked about the asking price for the unit being $50 million.
But Hughes Corp. said that wasn’t correct and explained that the source of the erroneous price was a broker in Japan who published incorrect information about the unit online that got repeated at the event for local brokers.
“It was just a mistake,” David Striph, senior vice president in Hawaii for Texas-based Hughes Corp., said at the time.
Later one prospective buyer claimed the grand penthouse was available for just under $100 million.
It’s unclear whether the grand penthouse space advertised now is the same as what was envisioned earlier.
According to documents Hughes Corp. filed with the state Real Estate Commission, Waiea’s biggest penthouse was programmed to span the 35th and 36th floors with seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms and two half-bathrooms covering 17,521 square feet of living space, plus a 3,661-square-foot lanai fronting an infinity-edge pool.
Vanderboom said there was a previous design contemplated for a single two-story unit with roughly 18,500 square feet.
The $36 million penthouse is 10,000 square feet on the 36th floor. And a 35th-floor grand penthouse with 8,500 square feet is priced at $35 million.
Vanderboom said a buyer could still purchase and combine both penthouses for $71 million.
As separate units, both homes include outdoor lanai and private rooftop pools with panoramic views. The penthouses also include private garages in the tower’s parking structure that will have their own enclosed parking spaces with garage doors.
Vanderboom said the company plans to finish and furnish the inside of the top-floor penthouse but leave the lower grand penthouse as an unfinished shell for a buyer to customize.
Hughes Corp. is listing the top-floor penthouse with local brokerage Hawaii Life. Another local firm will be assigned the listing for the lower grand penthouse, though an agreement hasn’t yet been finalized.
Waiea is on pace to be completed by the end of this year.
If the grand penthouse units sell for their list prices, it would break a record for a condominium in Hawaii. That record was $10 million for a unit in the new ONE Ala Moana tower that was sold in 2014 to break a prior record of $5 million.
Other luxury condos being built in Honolulu also have some pretty staggering prices. At Park Lane Ala Moana, which is being built next to a Bloomingdale’s store at the state’s largest shopping center, there are five grand penthouses that range in price from $18.8 million to $28 million.
