New Waikiki senior apartments blessed

Something very different from a new upscale hotel, luxury condominium or chic retailer is preparing to open in Waikiki: housing for seniors with low incomes.

A nonprofit developer with heavy government financing held a blessing Tuesday for a new affordable rental apartment building expected to welcome its first residents early next month.

The nine-story Ainahau Vista II features 62 studio and one-bedroom apartments with monthly rents from $549 to $1,137.

Kahu Kordell Kekoa asked that the right people be brought to the right apartments for the right reasons for the right price.

“Today … we bring goodness into this aina (land),” he said.

Real estate firm Locations plans to hold a lottery to select tenants and is accepting applications through today. So far, 110 applications have been submitted for the apartments, which range from 377 to 420 square feet.

To qualify, applicants must be 55 or older and earn no more than 60 percent of Honolulu’s annual median income, which equates to $43,980 for a single person or $50,220 for a couple. Six apartments are reserved for seniors earning half as much.

The Hawaii Housing Development Corp. project headed by Gary Furuta represents a follow-up to a similar building with 106 apartments put up in 2006 by the same developer on most of what was a vacant 35,761-square-foot lot.

When the first tower, called Ainahau Vista, was planned, the city had wanted to use the mauka portion of the site for public parking to compensate for free stalls removed from Ala Wai Boulevard when the pedestrian promenade next to the road was beautified with more grassy areas. The sewer line capacity in the area at the time also couldn’t handle more than Ainahau Vista would produce.

Those two things changed with sewer line upgrades and withdrawn parking interest, so Hawaii Housing pursued a second building on the leftover piece of land it had made into temporary green space for Ainahau Vista residents.

A second building was supported by the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, though some neighbors started a petition to oppose the addition in part because the developer was seeking to tap funds from a city Housing First program that would have provided some units to get the homeless off the street. Opponents also didn’t want to lose the green space even though it wasn’t a public park.

To raise the $22 million development cost for Ainahau Vista II, Hawaii Housing relied on about $10 million worth of federal and state tax credits sold to investors, $8 million from the state agency Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. and about $1.5 million from two city programs other than Housing First.

“These projects are a challenge to put together,” said Randy Moore, board chairman of Hawaii Housing, which has developed 11 Oahu affordable-housing projects in its 25-year history.

City and state representatives also attended Tuesday’s blessing and gave thanks for the collaborative effort that included the City Council providing exemptions to several rules governing density, open space, parking and permit fees.

In return the developer must maintain low-income rents for 61 years in a market where housing costs are high and a lot of recent development has catered to well-to-do tourists.

Mary Ann Jenkins, a 69-year-old Ainahau Vista resident, said she was surprised that the rents were less than she found in San Diego. Jenkins, who is from Kentucky, had been researching housing options after her doctor recommended she move for health reasons. “I love it here,” she said.

Michelle Tremblay, who moved into Ainahau Vista about a year ago with her 96-year-old mother, said Waikiki is generally an expensive place to live. “I feel very lucky to be here,” she said. “Very lucky.”