Editorial: Affordable is the new mantra for Kakaako housing

Location, location, location. That’s certainly what two new Kakaako housing towers have going for them.

Now add to that something equally crucial in high-priced Honolulu: affordable, affordable, affordable.

Monday’s blessing for Hale Kewalo saw the arrival of 128 units at 450 Piikoi St., just ewa of Ala Moana Center, at monthly rents rarely seen in the urban core: $656 to $1,093 for one-bedroom units, $787 to $1,575 for two bedrooms, and $1,819 for three bedrooms. The mainly state-financed $53 million project is reserved for low-income households, those capped at 60 percent of median income (about $49,020 for a single person, $55,980 for a couple and $69,960 for a family of four).

All units have been leased out, confirmation of the strong demand and need for rental units at this price point. In fact, more than 500 hopefuls applied for the 128 units; the project by developer Stanford Carr is slated to be kept in this affordable-median range for 61 years, a welcome time horizon.

Also opening this week, just a few blocks ewa in the heart of Kakaako: the Ke Kilohana midpriced condo tower. This, too, was good to see: local young families and first-time homebuyers being part of the redevelopment and growth of a new community. This tower at 988 Halekauwila by Howard Hughes Corp. is the developer’s fourth in the master-planned district, but the first non-luxury one; prices here are less than at those three others that started at about $1 million.

At the Hale Kewalo blessing, Mayor Kirk Caldwell noted that more projects like it are needed in Honolulu, due to residents’ proximity to jobs, schools and recreation: “This is the dream. Make the city more city to keep the country more country.”

When it comes to affordable housing, that’s what policymakers must remember, time and again, when developers come calling with their plans.