The developer of Ward Village in Kakaako took the tiniest of steps recently to reach a major milestone: declaring its first “sold out” condominium tower.

Texas-based Howard Hughes Corp. noted the last sales contract being signed for its nearly finished Ae‘o high-rise in a quarterly financial report Tuesday.

Hughes Corp. said it had signed contracts for all 465 units in the tower as of Sept. 30. The project contains a recently opened Whole Foods and is on schedule to finish residential area construction by the end of the year so buyers can complete their purchases and move in.

Up through June 30, there had been 464 Ae‘o sales. The one additional sale during the July-September period made Ae‘o the first tower at Ward Village to sell out.

However, three other towers — Anaha, Waiea and Ke Kilohana — are very close.

At Anaha, 314 of 317 units had been sold as of Sept. 30, Hughes Corp. reported. And at Waiea, 167 of 174 units had been sold as of the same date, the company said.

Waiea was finished about two years ago and Anaha opened a year ago.

At Ke Kilohana, which is under construction and projected to open next year, Hughes Corp. reported having signed sales contracts for 395 of 423 units through Sept. 30. The company also said it made 18 more sales in October to make the tower 98 percent sold.

Hughes Corp. started construction on a fifth tower, ‘A‘ali‘i, last month after offering units for sale in January. In Tuesday’s report, the company said it had sold 77 percent of the ‘A‘ali‘i units, or 579 of 771, through the end of October. That was up from 67 percent, or 500 units, through July.

The company described continued Ward Village condo sales as a “robust” response from buyers wanting to live in the growing neighborhood of residential towers, retail stores and restaurants mauka of Kewalo Harbor.

“In Honolulu, the extraordinary pace of sales in Ward Village continued in the third quarter,” Hughes Corp. CEO David Weinreb said in a statement.

The developer plans to follow ‘A‘ali‘i with a sixth tower called Ko‘ula, for which it received state approval in August. Sales have yet to start.

Since the company began Waiea, it said it has sold 1,905 residential units in five towers with units available for sale, or 89 percent of all units.

Most Ward Village condos are million-dollar residences, though Hughes Corp. is required by a state agency regulating development in Kakaako to make 20 percent of residential units affordable and available to residents earning moderate incomes.

At the high end, the average original price at Waiea was $3.6 million. At the low end, the average price at Ke Kilohana was $510,776.

Hughes Corp. has a state-approved master plan to develop up to around 4,500 residential units planned in 16 towers, along with 1 million square feet of retail businesses.