Kuilei Place, billed by its developer as a landmark residential community bringing 1,005 condominium units to the heart of Honolulu, remains a graded dirt lot in Moiliili.
But the pending yet controversial 43-story, $619 million tower complex, which includes 603 “affordable” units at 2599 Kapiolani Blvd., is touted as one of the largest projects of its kind currently under construction on Oahu.
Led by Kobayashi Group and BlackSand Capital, Kuilei Place — about two months into its construction — is slated to offer a mix of market-rate and workforce residences targeted for those in the 80% to 140% area median income groups. A single person at 80% AMI earns $77,950 a year, while a single person at 140% AMI earns $117,700 annually, state data indicates.
The developer says 85% of Kuilei Place residences already have been sold in a project that will transform 3.15 acres in Moiliil into a vibrant residential neighborhood, offering a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom homes designed to meet the needs of local families.
Taking place on an active construction site Wednesday, a ground blessing for the project brought scores of city and state officials including Gov. Josh Green, Mayor Rick Blangiardi and members of the Honolulu City Council including Council Chair Tommy Waters.
Officials from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. — which approved Kuilei Place as a 201H state-level affordable housing project in 2022 — were also in attendance.
Kahu Kenneth Makuakane, pastor at Kawaiahao Church, led the blessing that included developers, state and city officials wielding traditional ‘o‘o sticks to ceremonially break ground on a project scheduled for completion by late 2027.
“Today is truly a special milestone, and I’m excited to be here with all of you …that have played a role in getting us here to this day,” Alana Kobayashi Pakkala, chief operating officer of Kobayashi Group, told those gathered.
“This project faced many challenges … but we were determined to reimagine what kamaaina housing could be in Honolulu,” she added. “Our vision was clear: to create not just homes, but a community where local families could thrive and build their future through homeownership.”
The governor also spoke of the importance of Kuilei Place.
“It is addressing the real problem we all have, which is housing for all, housing for our people,” Green said. “It is the first challenge we wake up with thinking about, (and) the last one we go to bed with, thinking about how can we afford housing for our people?”
Waters addressed the difficulty of getting the project off the ground.
He noted that included dealing with its many opponents — notably, low-income renters who had lived at the former Kapiolani Village Apartments, and objected to being displaced — following the Council’s prior approval for Kuilei Place.
“You may remember there were people coming out called the renter’s union, and they had signs, and they were saying ‘No, no, no to Kuilei Place,’” Waters recalled. “But the City Council stood firm with the mayor to say ‘No, we need to build housing.”
He noted that according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the city and county has a “deficit of 18,700” housing units.
“And this place is going to make a substantial dent in this need,” he added. “We’re providing places for people to live: teachers, firefighters, police officers, bank tellers.”
The road to development for a project that received just as many jeers as it won praise was a long one.
The City Council — following a related state-level approval from the HHFDC in October 2022 — greenlighted Kobayashi’s Kuilei Place project in January 2023.
However, many in the community had objected to the project’s building height.
The plan for Kuilei Place included a main 400-foot tower, which exceeded a 150-foot zoning height limit for the property, and a 12-story residential building fronting Kapiolani Boulevard, which would shield a 13-story parking structure.
The developer pointed out that nearby buildings include the 350-foot Regency Tower and the 375-foot Iolani Court Plaza, makai on Date Street.
Despite community objections, Kuilei Place was proposed under a state law — 201-H — which may allow exemptions to zoning height and density limits for projects that provide over 50% of housing units at prices that are affordable to moderate-income households.
But many disliked the project’s overall size and its potential negative impact on low-income people.
On Jan. 9, 2023, the McCully-Moiliili Neighborhood Board sent a written request asking the City Council to deny Kuilei Place and its requested exemptions.
“The project’s large scale is of particular concern, significantly out of context with our neighborhood, which has a high potential to impact neighborhood infrastructure, including emergency response,” wrote Tim Streitz, the board’s chair. “Furthermore, the ‘affordable’ units are not adequately serving lower income residents and, therefore, do not merit the generous exemptions in exchange.”
By July 12, 2023, residents who faced a Sept. 30 eviction date from their decades-old, low-rise Moiliili rental complex at 2647 Kapiolani Blvd., slated for demolition to allow Kuilei Place to materialize, also appeared inside Honolulu Hale’s Council Chambers.
The angry tenants — waving signs that read “Kuilei go away, Kapiolani Village here to stay” and “Protect Hawaii’s tenants” — called on the Council to side with lower-income local residents, rather than developers who appeared to cater to more affluent buyers and renters.
“Kuilei Place is evicting 130 tenants from their homes,” Donna Raneses, a former Kapiolani Village resident, told the Council then. “We and many others will all have to leave and don’t know right now where we’re going to find a place.”
“There’s no way the City Council can justify a project that leaves 134 families in financial distress,” she said. “To be working class in Honolulu often means one or two missed paychecks away from being on the street.”
The monthly rent for those at the former walk-up apartment building, which dated to the 1960s, ranged from $1,495 for one-bedroom units to $1,950 for three-bedroom units, including utilities and other fees.
On July 19, 2023, Waters wrote a letter — later emailed to Pakkala — which, in part, read: “We appreciate your efforts thus far but must insist that you strategize to see what other assistance you can provide.
“I further would like to insist that for all future projects, you continue to look for new ways to ensure that proper notification is received by all impacted residents,” he added.
Waters, however, defended Kuilei Place, which he and that prior Council approved.
Before Wednesday’s groundbreaking, Pakkala told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that former Kapiolani Village “renters and residents were relocated back at the end of 2023.”
“We did provide them assistance, and (helped) to find them homes as well as financial assistance,” she said, noting help was offered to the occupants of 141 units at the demolished rental complex. “Not (141) people.”
Asked if any of the former Kapiolani Village residents secured a future home at her company’s new project, Pakkala said “one of our former tenants is a homeowner here at Kuilei Place.”
She’d further note a one-bedroom condo at Kuilei Place is priced at $371,000.
“The highest-priced three-bedroom at 140% of area median income was $813,000,” she added. “We have sold 85% of the homes, so over 850 homes have been sold.”
