Varona Village sale pact approved by city

Honolulu government officials have taken a historic and long-overdue step toward selling city-owned homes in the former sugar plantation community Varona Village on Oahu’s Ewa Plain to residents who include Oahu Sugar Co. retirees.

In a 7-0 vote, City Council members approved a development agreement with local developer Peter Savio and nonprofit Hawaii Habitat for Humanity that will allow the development team to buy the 26-acre community with 46 homes and then sell those homes to residents.

Retirees of Oahu Sugar’s Ewa Plantation who live in Varona Village will have the top priority along with their spouses to purchase existing homes for an estimated $100,000.

Homes also will be available to others, including children and grandchildren of former Ewa Plantation workers who once lived in Varona Village, other sugar plantation retirees and current Varona Village residents who didn’t work on the plantation at estimated prices from $100,000 to $200,000 or more.

Some of the homes are close to a century old, and the purchase price will include basic safety fixes. Any additional renovations desired by buyers will cost extra but can be done at lower costs under Habitat’s program where groups of residents contribute labor along with volunteers.

The development partnership will pay the city $1.8 million for the village, and also will be allowed to build and sell 87 new homes for sale to the same prioritized groups at affordable prices. Construction of a community center also is part of the project.

The city has owned Varona Village since 1992, and intended to sell the homes to residents decades ago under a master plan that included redeveloping 600 acres of former land that was part of Oahu Sugar until the company shut down in 1995.

Many pieces of the Ewa Villages master plan, including selling homes in nearby Tenny Village and Renton Village to residents, establishing new parks and building the Ewa Villages Golf Course, were completed. But several past city administrations failed to follow through with the plan for Varona Village.

City officials including Councilman Ron Menor rekindled the effort in 2013, and a request for proposals was issued in 2017. The Savio/Habitat plan was selected over one other bid in 2018, and since then the city had been negotiating terms for a development agreement that was produced in August.

Menor said in a statement that the development agreement fulfills a 28-year-old city promise.

“It is unfortunate that it has taken almost three decades and many of the original tenants are not with us to see this day, but I’m hopeful their children and families will thrive in the affordable housing opportunities that will be available in Varona Village,” he said.