Gov. Josh Green has turned to a former state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands director, Kali Watson, to lead the agency after a failed bid to get state Senate approval of Ikaika Anderson for the job.

Green announced Anderson’s would-be replacement Wednesday, saying Watson has a proven record of housing Native Hawaiians that will help the agency realize a plan to spend $600 million assisting beneficiaries of DHHL, which has around 28,700 applicants on a waitlist for homesteads.

“I am hopeful that state senators and our communities will be supportive of his nomination as we face a critical time in Hawaii,” Green said in a statement. “Kali has the track record to provide stewardship for the $600 million DHHL appropriation.”

Watson led DHHL from 1995 to 1998 under then-Gov. Ben Cayetano. A lawyer by trade, Watson also has served as legal counsel for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and a deputy state attorney general.

According to Green’s announcement, Watson coordinated the development of more than 3,100 residential lots on DHHL land and presided over a $600 million legislative settlement between the state and DHHL in 1995.

Settlement proceeds were distributed over 20 years in a deal that included transferring 16,518 acres of state land to the agency.

Watson also was instrumental in the transfer of about 900 acres of federal land to DHHL under the federal Hawaiian Home Lands Recovery Act of 1995.

Since 2000, Watson has led a nonprofit affordable-­housing and commercial project development firm he founded, the Hawaiian Community Development Board, which has built or refurbished about 1,400 affordable homes on Oahu and Maui, often with partners.

Watson’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the state Senate.

Under state law, Anderson, who has been leading DHHL as director designate since Jan. 3, will stay on the job until the Senate makes a confirmation or until the legislative session ends if the latter happens first.

Watson said in a statement that he is honored to be nominated.

“I’ve been working in the Hawaiian homesteading communities for most of my life, both as a past DHHL director and through my nonprofit. And being the new director with the $600 million from our supportive legislature, we can definitely do so much more, especially if we work collectively,” he said.

The Legislature last year gave DHHL a deadline of June 30, 2025, to spend the $600 million or encumber the money under contracts. The agency produced a plan to use the vast bulk of the funding, about $540 million, to create about 3,000 homestead lots for beneficiaries.

Under DHHL’s homestead program, beneficiaries must be at least 50% Hawaiian and can receive 99-year land leases for $1 a year but pay for or build their own houses.

The Hawaiian Homes Commission approved the $600 million spending plan last year, though some beneficiary advocacy organizations have criticized it and have urged Green to pursue an alternate plan.

Green has said he prefers to use more of the $600 million to build homes for beneficiaries, though intentions by Anderson to deviate from or add to the approved plan were factors in his negative reception by a Senate committee in his bid for confirmation as DHHL director.

The Senate Committee on Hawaiian Affairs voted 4-1 on Feb. 14 to not recommend Anderson’s confirmation by the full Senate. That led Anderson, a former Honolulu City Council chair who unsuccessfully ran last year for lieutenant governor, to withdraw himself from consideration the next day.

Watson, who testified in support of Anderson during the hearing, also has advocated for using more of the $600 million to pay for home construction.

During a special Hawaiian Homes Commission meeting Aug. 25, Watson offered what he called constructive comments on DHHL’s spending plan. He expressed strong doubt the agency could meet the three-year deadline and encouraged DHHL to compete against private developers for affordable-housing financing from another state agency, the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp.

“I’m not trying to point to any group or person and say, ‘Hey, you know, you’re not doing it right,” he told the commission.

Watson asked that DHHL provide $11.4 million to his nonprofit to move forward with a rental housing renovation project on agency land in Maili, and told the commission the governor should issue an emergency proclamation that allows DHHL to bypass procurement rules, including competitive bidding, so that it can issue development contracts quickly.

The Maili project would rehabilitate DHHL’s 40-unit Ulu Ke Kukui project, which was built as transitional housing for the homeless, into low-income rental housing. DHHL selected Watson’s nonprofit for the conversion in 2019 under a competitive bidding process that resulted in only one submission.

However, Watson has so far been able to raise only about $5.5 million of the project’s roughly $17 million development cost.

Other Hawaiian Community Development Board projects include the commercial and residential complex Nanakuli Village Center, the 51-unit rental housing complex Hale Makana O Maili, and a 105-unit senior rental housing complex under construction called Hale Makana O Mo‘ili‘ili.

Kamaki Kanahele, president of the Nanakuli Hawaiian Homestead Community Association, praised Watson for helping the community realize a vision for Nanakuli Village Center, which is anchored by Longs Drugs and includes several retail stores, a health clinic, a learning center and 48 affordable rental apartments.

“He made Nanakuli a better place to live and he will without a doubt help so many more Hawaiian homesteading communities, because he knows how to get things done,” Kanahele said in a statement. “He has the compassion, commitment, and expertise to do it. The future is bright for the Hawaiian people.”