New Hawaii cesspool proposal could hurt home sales, real estate leaders say

By Leave a Comment

The leaders of the Honolulu and Kauai Board of Realtors said that a proposal to eliminate residential cesspools in Hawaii may have good intentions, but it would have unintended consequences.

Both Jack Legal, president-elect of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, and Karen Ono, executive director of the Kauai Board of Realtors, said that while they are not opposed to the Clean Water Act, the Hawaii State Department of Health could stymie home sales if it decides that rural new homeowners must replace their cesspools with septic tanks, which can cost cost up to $10,000 or more to install.

The DOH is proposing that new homeowners have 180 days from the date of sale to replace cesspools with septic tanks.

Ono said that could add thousands of dollars to the costs of the home, and both Ono and Legal say that mortgage companies would be less likely to approve a loan for a home that would need a new septic tank.

Legal said the new rules would discourage both the seller and the buyer.

The new rules would affect 77,000 homeowners on Neighbor Islands, and 11,000 on Oahu, including to Thelma Dreyer, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Senate.

The proposal would also require new developments that have at least 15 lots to have septic tanks or sewer systems. That number is now 50, Ono said.

In a letter to the state Department of Health, Sen. Rosalyn Baker, who represents parts of Maui, said the proposed 180 days for homeowners to make the change to septic tanks fails to consider issues they may encounter for things such as permits and whether landowners would be able to connect with the county system.

Baker wrote that the DOH says that while there are now now almost 90,000 cesspools, with 50,000 on the Big Island, 14,000 on Kauai, 12,000 on Maui, 11,000 on Oahu and 1,400 on Molokai, but the DOH planned only one public hearing on the proposed changes, on Oahu, although it was videoconferenced to Neighbor Islands.

“It is unfortunate that DOH has chosen to pursue changing its administrative rules without seeking meaningful input from the landowners and communities most affected,” Baker wrote.

But now, the Department of Health said that it would hold meetings on Neighbor Islands and extend the public comment period through Oct. 17.

Bill Cresenzo Reporter – Pacific Business News

$75M Senior-living high-rise near Hawaii Convention Center creating 460 jobs

By Leave a Comment

Construction for the 17-story Kalakaua Gardens senior-living project at 1723 Kalakaua Ave. officially begins next week.

Construction for the 17-story Kalakaua Gardens senior-living project at 1723 Kalakaua Ave. officially begins next week.

A $75 million, 17-story senior-living facility on Kalakaua Avenue near the Hawaii Convention Center that will officially begin construction next week, is expected to create a total of 460 jobs, including 160 permanent full-time jobs when the project is completed in early 2016.

Louis Leong, vice president for San Francisco, California-based Island Paradise Investments, the developer of “Kalakaua Gardens,” told PBN this week that it is planning a “very aggressive” construction schedule, expecting to be finished with the project at 1723 Kalakaua Ave. in 15 months.

“We are aiming towards an aging-in-place mission,” he said. “Our residents, because of our four levels of care, can stay at our location for a very long period of time.”

The project will include a total of 168 rental units with 216 beds, consisting of 136 independent and assisted living beds, 23 memory care beds and 49 skilled nursing beds.

In terms of staffing, it will have about 20 management level positions, 80 in-care and support staff jobs and 60 positions in dining, housekeeping and support staff.

Leong said that it will begin outreach for pre-leasing eight to six months before completion of the project.

He declined to specify rates, although he noted that it will be market rents that are very competitive with other projects.

“Our concentration will be to get this community to be a success,” Leong said. “We are definitely looking at other potential sites, but not actively, because we want to make sure this one is running the right way first.”

He pointed out that Palolo Chinese Home, a provider of long-term care services to seniors and their families, helped Island Paradise Investments with help for the project, including design, financial analysis and programming.

Avalon Health Care has been selected as the management firm for Kalakaua Gardens.

Honolulu-based Architects Hawaii Ltd. designed the project with San Francisco-based Swinerton Builders as the general contractor.

Kalakaua Gardens is located at the same location as the 1723 Kalakaua project, a 16-story, 110-unit residential condominium that at one time drew hundreds of prospective buyers. Island Paradise Investments switched gears three years ago to develop Kalakaua Gardens.

Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

Makaha Hotel and Resort to be demolished, Pacific Links says new hotel possible

By 1 Comment

The Makaha Hotel and Resort in Leeward Oahu will be demolished soon. Owner Pacific Links says it may build a new hotel on the site.

The Makaha Hotel and Resort in Leeward Oahu will be demolished soon. Owner Pacific Links says it may build a new hotel on the site.

The Makaha Hotel and Resort in West Oahu, which has been closed for about three years, will be demolished as soon as possible to make way for future redevelopment of the property that may include the rebuilding of a new hotel, the owner of the 40-year-old resort told PBN Tuesday.

Pacific Links Hawaii, which gained control of the 173-room Makaha Hotel and Resort through foreclosure earlier this year, said, through its Chief Operating Officer Micah Kane, that the clubhouse will remain intact in the hopes that it will play an important role in the redevelopment.

Pacific Links, which owns and operates 10 golf courses in Hawaii, on the Mainland and in China, is currently going through the approval process for the $30 million redesign of its Makaha West Golf Club near the resort. Legendary PGA Tour pro Greg Norman — “The Shark” — is handling the redesign of the course.

Kane told PBN that Pacific Links Hawaii is still very much in the listening and learning stage, but it hopes to begin the redevelopment of the Makaha West Golf course in early 2015 and solidify a resort partner in that time period.

Plans are being vetted with community members of the Makaha Valley Steering Committee, he said.

The Makaha Hotel and Resort was once one of the largest employers on the Leeward Coast, supporting hundreds of families in Makaha, Waianae and Nanakuli.

Kane said that the economic and social impact of a new hotel could provide a huge economic boost for this community, and that Pacific Links has been working very closely with the community to understand the aspirations and concerns for the valley, address issues and move community projects forward.

Demolition of the long-shuttered resort is part of the groundwork to attract a quality resort partner, one that respects Hawaiian culture, is environmentally responsible and recognizes the inherent beauty and history of the land, Kane said.

Late last year, Pacific Links Hawaii filed a request with the City and County of Honolulu to change the zoning of about 30 acres of a nearly 90-acre parcel of land from general agriculture district to general preservation district at the Makaha West Golf Course.

The city’s notice said that the purpose of the proposed zone change is to include the additional acreage in the renovation of the existing golf course and allow golf course use of the land under the proposed zoning.

In Hawaii, Pacific Links owns the Kapolei Golf Club, the Olomana Golf Links in Waimanalo and the Royal Hawaiian Golf Club in Kailua, as well as the Makaha Golf Club West and Makaha Golf Club East.

Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg likely buying more Hawaii beachfront property

By Leave a Comment

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, talks on the phone while arriving for a morning session his wife Priscilla Chan at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, in this July file photo from Bloomberg.

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, talks on the phone while arriving for a morning session his wife Priscilla Chan at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, in this July file photo from Bloomberg.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently is buying even more beachfront property on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, adding to his collection of hundreds of acres on the Garden Isle he recently acquired, a source close to the situation tells Pacific Business News.

PBN reported last week that the head of the world’s top social media company is the likely buyer of a 357-acre beachfront estate on Kauai’s North Shore called the “Kahuaina Plantation” for $66 million.

Now, Zuckerberg is apparently acquiring another 380 acres nearby Kahuaina from James Pflueger, the retired Hawaii auto dealer, who pleaded no contest last year to a felony count of reckless endangerment for his role in the deaths of seven people who were killed in a 2006 collapse of the Ka Loko dam on his Kauai property, for a total of about $56 million.

State records show that the sale closed last month to Pilaa International LLC, a Hawaii company with a Woodbrigde, Connecticut, address.

Pilaa International is not registered as a business in Hawaii, nor in Connecticut, according to business registration searches in those states.

The sales price for the Pilaa International transaction was about $50 million.

In another transaction, Pflueger’s Pilaa 400 LLC sold property to Hawaii-based Koa Kea International LLC, which lists Gary and Teresa Stewart, as well as Sara Jehn, an architect with Kauai-based Agor Architecture, as its managers.

Jehn did not immediately respond to a message left by PBN on Wednesday.

Wesley Chang, the Honolulu attorney representing Koa Kea International, also could not be reached on Wednesday.

Pflueger’s attorney, William McCorriston, founder and partner of Honolulu-based McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon LLP, did not return messages left by PBN.

Zuckerberg, the 11th richest American and the 14th richest man in the world with a net worth of $33.7 billion, according to Forbes, has been to Kauai on vacation as recently as April 2013, along with his wife, Priscilla Chan.

Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

$140M West Oahu apartment rental complex starting construction soon

By Leave a Comment

Forest City Hawaii's Kapolei Lofts project should start construction soon.

Forest City Hawaii’s Kapolei Lofts project should start construction soon.

Forest City Hawaii’s planned 499-unit Kapolei Lofts mixed-use apartment rental complex in West Oahu is expected to start construction soon, a contractor for the $140 million project told PBN.

Peter Kwan, vice president of Operations for Kapolei-based Delta Construction Corp., said that it should be starting soon on site work for the project, which includes one-, two- and three-bedroom units, ranging from 400 square feet to 1,200 square feet, to be located near the Foodland-anchored Kapolei Village Center.

“We are doing the horizontal work for this project,” he told PBN.

The project, which was first reported by PBN, also includes commercial space, a community center/clubhouse, a one-acre linear park and parking.

It is expected to take about two years to complete.

Of the total apartment units, 100 units will be targeted for households at 80 percent and below the area median income as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, while 200 units will be targeted for those at 140 percent and below the area median income and the remaining balance of units will be offered at market rents.

In March, Forest City cleared a key environmental hurdle for the project.

Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

 

CEO says Honolulu Seawater A/C project to start construction in August 2015

By Leave a Comment

Eric Masutomi, president and CEO of Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning, speaks to the audience about the project at the 2014 Asia-Pacific Resilience Innovation Summit and Expo on Wednesday in Honolulu.

Eric Masutomi, president and CEO of Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning, speaks to the audience about the project at the 2014 Asia-Pacific Resilience Innovation Summit and Expo on Wednesday in Honolulu.

The long-planned $250 million Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning project, which will cool Downtown Honolulu office buildings and condominium towers with cold water from the ocean, is slated to start construction by Aug. 1, 2015, and be operational by the first quarter of 2017, the head of the company said Wednesday.

Eric Masutomi, president and CEO of Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning — who also was a panelist at the Asia-Pacific Resilience Innovation Summit and Expo in Honolulu that covered the topic of seawater air conditioning — said that all of the project’s permits have been filed and the majority of them have been approved.

However, some still question if the project is ever going to happen, and Masutomi noted that this question is one he is asked frequently.

“It has taken us a while to get to this stage,” he said. “One person compared us to a purple unicorn, [saying] it will never happen. I’m here to tell you that it will happen.”

The dilemma for Honolulu Seawater A/C is getting customers signed up.

“The rumors of the project not happening hasn’t helped our cause, but we are engaging a strong marketing plan, offering pretty attractive incentives to motivate building [owners] downtown to sign up now rather than waiting until later,” Masutomi said. “Once capacity is reached, that’s it. It’s improbable that it can be expanded. If you wait, you will be looking at higher rates and if nothing else, it’s questionable about the availability of supply.”

The Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning project, which has signed up such customers as the Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, Hawaiian Electric Co., Finance Factors Ltd., First Hawaiian Center, One Waterfront Towers and Remington College, has capacity for about half the buildings in Downtown Honolulu.

The system will provide air conditioning to buildings in Downtown Honolulu by pumping deep ocean water through a pipeline more than four miles offshore to a cooling station in Kakaako.

The projects reducing electricity usage is the equivalent of a 30-megawatt wind farm or a 42-megawatt solar energy farm.

Duane Shimogawa Reporter – Pacific Business News

HONOLULU HOME SALES, PRICES DIP SLIGHTLY IN AUGUST, BUT HOUSING

By Leave a Comment

HONOLULU HOME SALES, PRICES DIP SLIGHTLY IN AUGUST, BUT HOUSING INVENTORY UP, ACCORDING TO HONOLULU BOARD OF REALTORS®

HONOLULU HOME SALES, PRICES DIP SLIGHTLY IN AUGUST, BUT HOUSING
INVENTORY UP, ACCORDING TO HONOLULU BOARD OF REALTORS®

HONOLULU HOME SALES, PRICES DIP SLIGHTLY IN AUGUST, BUT HOUSING

INVENTORY UP, ACCORDING TO HONOLULU BOARD OF REALTORS®

HONOLULU — The Honolulu Board of REALTORS® released resale figures today for the month of

August 2014. According to the analysis conducted by the Board, using data collected from its computerized Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system, the statistics are:

During August, sales of single-family homes decreased by 11.7 percent, while condominium sales decreased by 3.5 percent from August 2013. The median price paid for single-family homes in Augustdecreased slightly by 2.3 percent from the same month last year to $650,000. The median price for condominiums remained the same as that of August 2013 at $350,000. According to the Days on Marketindicator, single-family homes were on the market for an average of only 15 days, while condominiums were on the market for an average of 23 days.

“August was an interesting month for the Oahu housing market,” said Julie Meier, president of the Honolulu Board of REALTORS®. “While on the surface it may look like this past August was not on par with last August for sales of single-family homes, the truth is that August 2013 was a banner month – the high point of sales for the year. It would have been very difficult to duplicate that this year. Still, this remains a very healthy market, as evidenced by the fact that the average single-family home was on the block for only 15 days before being sold. Also noteworthy is the fact that inventory of both single-family homes and condos is climbing, which will help the market meet demand.”

Ala Moana area’s future: Wider sidewalks, bike paths and a train station

By Leave a Comment

Ala Moana residents got a look Wednesday evening at the Transit Oriented Development plan that the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting has crafted for the area.

Ala Moana residents got a look Wednesday evening at the Transit Oriented Development plan that the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting has crafted for the area.

Around 150 people got a look Wednesday evening at what the neighborhood around Ala Moana Center could look like years into the future, as Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting showcased its rail-inspired transit oriented development plan for the neighborhood.

Speaking to the crowd at Washington Middle School. Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said that he likes to refer to the plans as “transit enhanced development,” and said that input on the plans from residents around the 21 stations on the city’s 20-mile rail transit route is crucial.

“It needs to to be organic,” he said. “It needs to be from the ground up.”

The Department of Planning and Permitting is creating TOD plans for most of the neighborhoods surrounding the 21 stations along the route of the $5.16 billion rail project, slated for completion in 2019.

Ala Moana Center will be the first or the last stop on the route.

The plan divides the Ala Moana area into six districts — Ala Moana Center, Kapiolani Corridor, the Hawaii Convention Center Keeaumoku, Kaheka and Atkinson. The plan features open space, a community pool, community gardens, wider sidewalks, bike paths, and a mix of commercial and residential space, including a stipulation that would require residential developers to designate a certain number of apartments as affordable housing.

“The plan is intended as both an overall framework for growth and a guide for local decision making around the station,” the DPP says. “It is conceptual in nature, showing possible improvements on both public and private property. To ensure positive change in the station area, it is essential that stakeholders work together on future projects.”

Next up — the Honolulu City Council needs to adopt the plan as well as special district zoning regulars. The department then wants to find incentives and money from the city, state and federal governments, and partner with property owners are are interested in using the plan as a guide for redevelopment.

Bill Cresenzo Reporter – Pacific Business News

Oahu Real Estate Market Update

By Leave a Comment

August_2014The median price of a single-family home on Oahu fell last month, two months after hitting a new record price, as sales in August dropped by 12 percent when compared to last year, according to statistics released Sunday by the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

The median price of a single-family home in August was $650,000, which was 2.3 percent below the median price of $665,000 in August 2013. The median price in June set at record at $700,000.

Sales of single-family homes on Oahu fell 11.7 percent to 323 homes sold, from 366 homes sold in August 2013.

Condominium sales in August declined by 3.5 percent to 444 units sold, from 460 units sold during the same month last year. The median price of a condo on Oahu was unchanged at $350,000.

“August was an interesting month for the Oahu housing market, Julie Meier, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said in a statement. “While on the surface it may look like this past August was not on par with last August for sales of single-family homes, the truth is that August 2013 was a banner month – the high point of sales for the year. It would have been very difficult to duplicate that this year.”

The number of sales in August 2013 was 25 percent higher than August 2012, when 293 homes sold. Last month’s sales were 10 percent higher than the 2012 level. The median price a year ago was 9 percent higher than the median price set in August 2012, which was $609,000. Last month’s median price of $650,000 was nearly 7 percent higher than the price from two years ago.

“Still, this remains a very healthy market, as evidenced by the fact that the average single-family home was on the block for only 15 days before being sold,” Meier noted. “Also noteworthy is the fact that inventory of both single-family homes and condos is climbing, which will help the market meet demand.”

Staff Pacific Business News

Oahu luxury home sales rise 8% in July

By Leave a Comment

Sales of luxury homes on Oahu — those that sold for more than $1 million — increased 8 percent in July, when compared with teh same month last year.

The report says that 67 luxury homes with a median price of $1.4 million were sold in July 2014, up from 62 homes sold in July 2013.

On the higher end, four sales of more than $6 million have closed since January.

Hawaii Kai had nine sales of more than $1 million in July, while Kailua had seven sales of homes for more than $1 million.

The most expensive home sold in July was a four-bedroom, four-bath, 5,168-square-foot home in Diamond Head that sold for $6 million.

Most of the homes — 52 — sold in the $1 million to $2 million range, the report says. Twelve sold in the $2 to $4 million range, while three sold in the $4 million-and-higher range.

Bill Cresenzo Reporter – Pacific Business News

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$2M -_$3M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$3M -_$4M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$4M -_$5M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$5M -_$6M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$6M -_$8M

Luxury_Oahu_Estates_$8M – 10M

Luxury_Oahu_Honolulu_Condos