College student housing tower readies for opening

The developer of a “collegiate housing” tower in Moiliili had the 14-story apartment building blessed floor by floor Wednesday in anticipation of initial renters moving in Aug. 15.

Occupancy in the Hale Mahana tower is expected to fill out over the next year, according to Paul Menzies, CEO of California-based Laconia Development LLC, which built the $110 million project with Tennessee-based EdR Collegiate Housing.

Menzies said growing occupancy over two seasons is an industry standard, and that he expects over 60 percent of Hale Mahana’s units to be rented this year.

Monthly rental rates per bed in the 195-unit building range from $900 to $2,200 including furnishings and utilities.

The top rate is for a one-bedroom unit for a single person. Studios for a single person go for about $1,850. Rates in shared apartments containing multiple bedrooms range from $900 per bed for a room with two twin beds, to about $1,350 for a room with a single full bed. The tower has space for 590 tenants, which can include students, faculty and university staff.

Hale Mahana also has a rooftop level with an outdoor lounge area, a fitness center, a computer lab and study rooms.

Menzies, speaking from the lounge area with a view of Manoa Valley and the University of Hawaii, said today’s college students have higher expectations than he did when he was a student.

“I had a view from my room in college and it was 12 foot across an alley to a brick wall,” he said. “Well, I offer you this view now of Manoa Valley.”

The fall semester at UH starts Aug. 20.

Hale Mahana contractors on Wednesday were still working on landscaping features, a bus stop shelter and ground-floor retail spaces. Utility poles on an improved sidewalk fronting the building also have yet to be removed; new utility lines will run underground.

Another outstanding issue with the project is a legal dispute over the use of a privately owned street, Kahuna Lane, which Laconia and EdR widened so it could serve as the sole access point for vehicles getting into or out of Hale Mahana’s parking garage.

Local investment firm The Malulani Group, formerly known as Magoon Brothers Ltd., owns the portion of the road facing Hale Mahana and filed a lawsuit last year seeking to prevent use of the road for tower access even though the road is open for public use.

Malulani argues in court filings that the tower with 200 parking stalls plus 84 spaces for mopeds and 208 spaces for bikes will overburden its segment of the lane and make it unsafe. Laconia and EdR deny that claim and have objected to a Malulani request for the developer to improve a broader segment of the lane. Though Malulani previously has tried to physically block access to the tower garage, the developer expects tenants will be able to use Kahuna Lane freely. A trial in the legal case is scheduled for August 2019.