One of them is to be built on land owned by the city. A second is on state property. The third involves the conversion of a well-known office tower.
The Honolulu City Council on Thursday gave final approvals for three very different but significant housing projects on the island that would collectively create up to 1,300 units on rental- starved Oahu.
Council Zoning Chairman Ron Menor was ecstatic about the approvals, noting that the units in two of the projects are to be rented to those making 60% of Oahu’s area median income or less, as determined annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
For those making 60% of median, in 2020 dollars that means $1,323 a month in rent for a studio, $1,417 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,701 for a two-bedroom apartment.
The 2020 HUD schedule defines 60% of AMI on Oahu as $52,920 of annual income for a single person, $60,480 for a household with two people, $68,040 for a three- person household and $75,540 for a family of four. For an eight-person household, 60% of AMI is $99,720.
Menor said that the 1,300 units constitute “the largest number of truly affordable rental units” that the Council has approved at a single meeting in his nearly eight years at Honolulu Hale.
“It was an affordable- housing milestone day for the Council,” Menor said.
Getting the green light were:
>> A 405-unit complex on 10.2 acres of city-owned land in the heart of downtown Kapolei.
>> An 800-unit affordable senior rental at North School Street and Lanakila Avenue on the site of the existing 13-building administrative campus of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.
>> 252 affordable units that are part of the 493-unit Residences at Bishop Place tower in what for years has been a well-trafficked office building on Fort Street Mall.
The Kobayashi Group was awarded the right from the city to put up the mixed-use affordable-housing complex along Kapolei Parkway, across from the Kapolei Lofts development and just a few blocks from the center of the city. Planned are 11 separate buildings that are to be two to three stories in height. Units will range from studios to four-bedroom units.
Plans for the $180 million complex include two preschools for up to 120 children, commercial space, three separate recreation/laundry buildings and two parking structures.
Alana Kobayashi Pakkala, chief operating officer for the Kobayashi Group, said her company already has partners that are committed to helping develop the two preschools.
All but one of the 405 units must be rented to families making no more than 60% of AMI, and 21 of them must be aimed at those making no more than 30% of AMI.
Resolution 20-272 gives Kobayashi Group exemptions that include the waiving of about $3.9 million in fees in exchange for keeping the units priced affordably. Those exemptions include approximately $1.9 million in wastewater system facility charges, $629,000 in building permit fees and about $1 million in park dedication fees.
In Kapalama the HPHA has been talking for a number of years about redeveloping its headquarters site with affordable housing. The project is being undertaken on the state housing agency’s behalf by California- based nonprofit Retirement Housing Foundation.
RHF owns two existing affordable senior housing complexes on Oahu at 167 N. Pauahi St. and 900 Punahou St.
The HPHA site is next to the Lanakila Multi-Purpose Senior Center.
Existing structures on the site date back to 1953. The new development would consist of three towers — with roughly 250, 250 and 300 units — that will be put up in phases. A majority of the units would be geared to those 55 and older who are earning 50% of AMI or less.
A key exemption being granted allows RHF to build each of the towers up to 270 feet tall. Existing zoning allows for a maximum height of only 25 feet. The developer also will be allowed to create 820 parking stalls where it normally needs 1,200 spaces.
Also planned are about 10,000 square feet of retail and community-use space, recreational areas and gardens.
Resolution 20-251 gives RHF a slew of exemptions, including a waiver from paying an estimated $3.8 million in park dedication fees and $1.7 million in building permit fees.
HPHA will get a new, 30,000-square-foot administrative building. Three of the units would be set aside for property managers.
Hakim Ouansafi, HPHA executive director, told Council members that the affordable regulations will be in place “for life.”
The 25-story Residences at Bishop Place condominium complex has been gradually converting over from office space in what was originally the First Hawaiian Bank Building and more recently as the 1132 Bishop complex, which housed a number of Hawaii Pacific University offices. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court still occupies a section of the complex.
The entire building will eventually have 493 affordable and workforce housing units, according to Kevin Crummy, chief investment officer for building owner and developer Douglas Emmett. Of the total, 252 units will be rented to those making between 80% and 120% of AMI.
The first phase, consisting of 98 market units that became open during the summer, has all been leased, Crummy said.
Douglas Emmett will redevelop Union Mall, along its Diamond Head flank, to create a park similar to nearby Tamarind Park.
Among the exemptions granted under Resolution 20-270 are waivers from paying approximately $4.8 million in park dedication fees and $1.2 million in wastewater system facility charges.
