Developer plans to build 4,000 homes in Kalaeloa

The population of Kalaeloa is envisioned to surge over the next two decades under a private developer’s plan to add roughly 4,000 homes and 7,000 jobs to the West Oahu area that was once Barbers Point Naval Air Station.

Hunt Cos., which acquired about 540 acres at the former base in 2009 from the Navy, publicly unveiled its master plan for the property Wednesday.

An initial phase of development will include affordable rental apartments converted from former military barracks, a retail marketplace and a light-industrial park.

"We’re excited," said Steve Colon, president of the Hawaii development division of Texas-based Hunt. "We’re excited to have completed our strategic implementation plan and are eager to fulfill its vision."

The master plan, Colon said, is roughly based on a master plan the state produced in 2006.

That state plan, adopted by the Hawaii Community Development Authority, called for 6,350 new homes, new schools and a business district with 7,000 new jobs on the 3,700-acre former military base closed by the Navy in 1999.

A previous master plan created in the mid-1990s as part of the base closure process considered almost no housing.

The Hunt plan will complement what has been a slowly evolving Kalaeloa community that includes former military housing that became rental homes open to the general population, a hodgepodge of businesses, Coast Guard facilities, an airport, a new FBI headquarters and transitional housing facilities for the homeless.

Hunt presented its conceptual plan Wednesday to the board of the HCDA, which developed and oversees zoning and other rules for Kalaeloa.

Hunt anticipates starting work next year to renovate former barracks for apartment use, which would produce the first roughly 100 new homes under the master plan.

A retail marketplace with a grocery store also would be part of the first phase, which Hunt anticipates finishing within seven years.

Other pieces of the initial phase include a photovoltaic energy farm, which is already under construction, and a light-industrial business park.

In the second phase, one of the former base’s main roads, Saratoga Avenue, would become Main Street.

Property for any schools deemed necessary by the state Department of Education are provided for in the plan.

There also would be 3.5 million square feet of commercial real estate, and 60 acres of open space including parks.

About 3,300 direct long-term jobs would be created by businesses and other operations through Hunt’s plan, the company said. Another 3,800 indirect long-term jobs within Kalaeloa also would be generated because of the activity produced by Hunt’s development, the company estimated. Those jobs don’t include what Hunt figures would be more than 1,000 construction jobs to realize the plan it has dubbed Ho‘ala Kalaeloa, or Renew Kalaeloa.

Jose Bustamante, Hunt’s vice president of development in Hawaii, said realizing the plan will reinvigorate the former base area with as much or more activity than was present during the Navy’s use.

However, not everyone supports so much residential use on the old base. Ewa Beach resident Glenn Oamilda told the HCDA board that Kalaeloa is a planned bedroom community that will negatively affect people who live in the Kapolei and Ewa regions, where traffic is bad.

Maeda Timson, a 43-year resident of Makakilo, disagreed with Oamilda and said Hunt’s plan will benefit the region by breathing new life into the area.

Melissa Lyman, president of the Kalaeloa Heritage and Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit group preserving Native Hawaiian cultural resources on former Navy property, also applauds what Hunt is doing.

"To see where it’s headed and it’s potential — maikai (good) — we’re really appreciative," she said.