Shovels finally ready for senior apartments

A nonprofit developer is scheduled to start construction today on a 160-unit rental apartment building on state land in Iwilei for low-income seniors after more than a decade of trying to get the proj­ect off the ground.

The 15-story Senior Residence at Iwilei will include one- and two-bedroom units at roughly $650 to $950 a month for seniors who are at least 62 years old and earn no more than 60 percent of Hono­lulu’s median income.

Observers say the $69 million proj­ect is notable because it will provide services to help residents age in place so they don’t have to move elsewhere for more costly long-term care.

The time it has taken to break ground on the apartments — 14 years after originally envisioned by the state — also shows how challenging developing such a proj­ect can be despite a critical need and strong committents.

Senior Residence is being built by Pacific Housing Assistance Corp., a local nonprofit and veteran builder of affordable rentals in Hawaii.

Project amenities include an adult day-care center, offices for nonprofit organizations and an on-site coordinator to provide residents with services such as in-home support, transportation, health care and legal assistance.

"These services will allow elderly residents to remain in their homes as they age, delaying the need for costly, long-term facilities," the proj­ect’s vision statement said.

Cullen Hayashida, long-term care coordinator for Kupuna Education Center, the gerontology program at Kapiolani Community College, said it’s not common for senior housing, at the low-income level, to include such services.

"The whole idea of aging in place is very critical," he said. "This is something we’ve certainly been trying to advocate for and push for quite some time. It makes a lot of sense."

Residents of the Iwilei proj­ect may not earn more than 60 percent of Hono­lulu’s annual median income, which equates to $49,000 for a couple or $43,000 for a single person. There are 119 units reserved for this group. Another 40 units will be reserved for seniors making no more than 50 percent of the median income, or $41,000 for a couple and $36,000 for a single person. One unit is for a resident manager.

Applications won’t be taken until a few months or so before construction is completed. A lottery to select tenants may be used if demand is overwhelming. The building is expected to take about two years to build.

To many involved in the proj­ect, there had been questions as to whether Senior Residences would ever get built.

"It’s been almost forever," said Marvin Awaya, executive director of Pacific Housing. "I got to hand it to the state for standing by and sticking with us."

The 1.8-acre proj­ect site in the early 1990s initially was part of 5.7 acres proposed for redevelopment to a state office complex called Li­liha Civic Center. The idea was to consolidate various state offices in one area.

But the economic downturn in the 1990s, along with a decision to move some state offices to Kapolei, canceled the Civic Center plan. In 1997 the state identified affordable housing as an alternate use, and a private architect completed a conceptual master plan a year later, envisioning a 200-unit affordable rental building on a portion of the larger property.

Pacific Housing responded to a state request for proposals, and was selected as developer in 2001. Groundbreaking was expected in mid-2002 with completion by the end of 2004, according to the proj­ect’s environmental impact statement. Proj­ect cost at that time was estimated at $34.7 million.

But many obstacles arose. "If there was something called luck, then what we had was bad luck," Awaya said.

Among major difficulties were removing unexpected underground storage tanks and property easements that appeared to be related to old operations of Oahu Railway & Land Co., which once had a base yard and terminal in the area.

Awaya also said the city tried to impose Chinatown design requirements on the proj­ect, and then the crash of financial markets and the economy dislodged financing.

At times even Awaya questioned whether the proj­ect would be built. "This thing has had to weather a lot of storms," he said.

To help make financing possible, the Legislature last year approved $26 million in general obligation bonds. Other financing sources include $33 million in Hula Mae multifamily housing revenue bonds, $5 million from a state dwelling unit revolving fund, a $2.3 million community development block grant from the city and a $900,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle.

The Hawaii Housing Finance & Development Corp. of Hawaii has been the state agency helping the developer coordinate and obtain financing, and is leasing the land to Pacific Housing for 55 years.

The agency has helped build 3,890 affordable housing units since 2006, and has a production plan to facilitate the delivery or preservation of roughly 5,000 more units through the next five years.