Castle & Cooke, Kamehameha Schools to add 183 workforce housing units in Kakaako

Feb 26, 2014, 1:16pm HST Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii and Kamehameha Schools officially unveiled their respective mixed-use residential projects in Kakaako on Wednesday that will cost $60 million to develop and add a total of 183 rental and for-sale workforce housing units to the area known by…


Feb 26, 2014, 1:16pm HST
Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

This three-dimensional endering shows a workforce housing complex being developed by Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii and Kamehameha Schools in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako.
This three-dimensional endering shows a workforce housing complex being developed by Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii and Kamehameha Schools in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako.

Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii and Kamehameha Schools officially unveiled their respective mixed-use residential projects in Kakaako on Wednesday that will cost $60 million to develop and add a total of 183 rental and for-sale workforce housing units to the area known by some as the “Third City.”

The project, which will be located on the block bounded by Auahi, Keawe and Pohukaina streets, will include 88 rental units developed by Kamehameha Schools and 95 units developed by Castle & Cooke.

The Castle & Cooke portion of the project, which will be located on the makai end of the block at 400 Keawe St., will occupy 1.5-acres and include a 65-foot, six-story mixed use building with 75 market-priced and 20 workforce housing units in one- to three-bedroom floor plans ranging from $400,000s to mid-$700,000s.

The building will include 10,000-square-feet of commercial space.

Meantime, Kamehameha Schools’ project, which it will develop itself, encompasses the remainder 2.8-acres of the block with workforce rentals in a 65-foot building comprised of four floors of residential units and three levels of parking.

The 88 units, which will include 40 studios, 16 one-bedroom units, 16 one-bedroom-plus-den units, eight two-bedroom units and eight three-bedroom units, are expected to be rented to middle-income workers and their families.

Rents for these units are expected to range from $1,100 per month to $1,800 per month, Paul Quintiliani, senior director of Kamehameha Schools’ commercial real estate division, told PBN.

The two-story, 24,000-square-foot building at 458 Keawe St., formerly used by Alu Like, will be used as commercial space.

Kamehameha Schools, which said that Alu Like will be relocated to another location, noted that the project will include 28,600 square feet of open areas that will feature a 14,500-square-foot plaza.

Additionally, the project will include a dog run, bicycle parking and a mid-block pedestrian passage that will run to and from a planned Honolulu rail transit station planned for one block away on Halekauwila Street.

Both projects are to be built at the same time, with construction starting later this year and an expected completion date of 2016.

No construction firm has been selected yet for the developments, although the project is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs.

The project, which was first reported by PBN, is part of Kamehameha Schools’ “Our Kakaako” master plan, which includes nearly 30 acres and nine full-block parcels with 2,750 residential units and commercial space.

Castle & Cooke, which is mostly known for building single-family residential projects such as Mililani and the recently approved 3,500-home Koa Ridge project, both in Central Oahu, would be stepping into somewhat uncharted waters with this residential project.

Bruce Barrett, executive vice president of residential operations for Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii, said that this project is the developer’s first mid-rise development.