An official letter requesting that a local developer provide greater assistance to more than 100 residents facing eviction at a Moiliili rental complex due to the pending construction of a 43-story condominium tower at the same site has been sent by the Honolulu City Council chair.
The July 19 letter from Council Chair Tommy Waters to The Kobayashi Group followed a protest at Honolulu Hale days earlier in which unionized hotel workers, tenants’ rights advocates and residents of the decades-old Kapiolani Village Apartments at 2647 Kapiolani Blvd., which is slated for demolition to make way for the new development, all appeared to object to the lack of truly affordable housing on Oahu.
On July 12 a group of about 30 protesters arrived as the Council considered plans for a transit-oriented development project — called 1538 Kapiolani Tower — consisting of 331-market rate units inside a mixed-use, 400-foot-tall tower to be built on the mauka side of Ala Moana Center. That project features 101 off-site units that would be considered affordable.
But tenants of Kapiolani Village Apartments turned out to protest previously approved plans for Kobayashi and its affiliate, BlackSand Capital, to build a separate and unrelated project called Kuilei Place — a $619 million tower complex meant to house 1,005 condo units, of which 603 are deemed affordable.
As planned, Kuilei Place would offer affordable units to those earning 80% to 140% of the area median income — for an individual, that means between $73,600 to $128,380 annually.
The Council — following a related state-level approval from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. in October — greenlit Kobayashi’s Kuilei Place project in late January.
At the July 12 Council meeting, opponents — waving signs reading “Kuilei go away, Kapiolani Village is here to stay” and “Protect Hawaii’s tenants” — called on the Council to side with lower-income local residents, rather than developers who appeared to cater to more affluent buyers and renters.
“Kuilei Place is evicting 130 tenants from their homes,” Donna Raneses, a Kapiolani Village resident, told the Council. “We and many others will have to leave and don’t know right now where we’re going to find a place.”
The evicted tenants have until Sept. 30 to vacate the property.
In response to protesters’ call for greater city assistance, Waters wrote the letter — later emailed to Kobayashi’s executive vice president and managing partner, Alana Kobayashi Pakkala — which, in part, reads: “I am thankful for the commitment of these residents, which helped us to keep the challenges of the state’s affordable housing crisis front of mind.
“That said, I am writing this letter to urge you to do more to find housing options for the current residents. The discussion was a reminder that regardless of how good our intentions may be, it is the results that truly matter.”
Waters added: “We appreciate your efforts thus far but must insist that you strategize to see what other assistance you can provide. As I am aware of your other affordable housing developments, I encourage you to see if there is a way to relocate any of your current residents in other projects. I further would like to insist that for all future projects, you continue to look for new ways to ensure that proper notification is received by all impacted residents.
“The fact remains that regardless of what communication efforts were made, if residents remain unaware to this degree, then there is still work to be done,” the letter reads.
Still, Waters would defend Kuilei Place — a 201H state-level affordable housing project that provides financial incentives to developers, speeds the review process and offers exemptions for developers from certain laws and rules related to planning, zoning and construction standards — that he and the Council also approved, a high-rise built taller than other buildings around it, near the corner of Kapiolani Boulevard and Date Street.
“Through our negotiations on this particular project alone, we were able to take the project from 13 units at or below 80% of the AMI to 41, a 215% increase. In addition, we increased the units between 100 and 120% AMI from 130 to 219, a 68% increase,” Waters wrote. “While in the short term, we are taking 125 units offline, in total, we would be adding 603 affordable units and 402 market units back into the inventory in their place.”
Kobayashi Group did not immediately respond to questions over Waters’ letter or any additional plans it had to transition Kapiolani Village tenants to new locations, including to properties it owns.
Previously, Pakkala told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the company continues to relocate affected tenants.
“Working with city and state leaders, we agreed to exceed the state’s 120-notice requirement by providing nearly one year’s notice of our plans — residents were notified in October 2022 that leases would not be renewed,” Pakkala said previously via email.
She noted the additional assistance includes providing a dedicated relocation specialist tasked with searching for new homes for tenants, free rent in August and September, a reference letter and $1,500 in additional relocation assistance money.
Pakkala added that “out of 125 impacted tenants at initial notification, 49 have found a new home.”
Kuilei Place is expected to break ground in late 2023, with an anticipated completion date of mid-2026, the company says.
This week Waters told the Star-Advertiser he wrote the letter in the hopes of seeing Kobayashi do more for the tenants of Kapiolani Village.
“While I acknowledge that they are providing considerable assistance above what is required by law, I want to challenge them to do more, and continue the open dialogue between the Council and developers,” Waters said via email.
Still, he added the hoped-for outcome was twofold.
“First, it is to encourage developers to continuously pursue more affordable housing projects,” he said. “Second, we want to encourage a collaborative approach, urging developers to work with government officials and the public in creating policy that will help to serve local families now and into the future.”
Developer influence
On July 12 one angered Kapiolani Village tenant told the Council there appeared to be no “community benefits” for her family and fellow neighbors.
Raneses added that “the only benefit in this project is for the developer and the City Council” as she and another speaker would assert the nine-member panel — save Council member Augie Tulba — had, according to state campaign filings, collectively received $184,000 in political campaign donations from Kobayashi, BlackSand Capital and the Kobayashi family since 2019.
“All of these donations over these past years are only to get favors back,” she said. “These developers know what they’re doing: They’re getting favors from you guys. To continue to do this is corruption. It’s clear corruption. And that’s why they’re failing me and my neighbors.”
When asked for his response to residents’ claims that housing projects are being approved by the Council due to developers’ campaign donations, Waters told the Star-Advertiser, “Campaign donations have no relation to any vote on any matter. Any such action is illegal, unethical and unacceptable.”
But beyond political donations, Kobayashi company’s leadership has supported the Council in other ways — most recently, with regard to Council and mayoral salary hikes that took effect July 1.
On March 22 the Honolulu Salary Commission recommended pay boosts of nearly 12.6% for the city’s mayor and executive management and an over 64% pay jump for the Council.
At that meeting the Salary Commission was initially inclined to follow earlier options to raise the annual salary for the Council by nearly 100%, or $135,000 — which, according to city staffers, would match 120% of the AMI for a family of four. Under that plan, the Council chair’s position would have matched 120% AMI for a family of four plus $10,000 for a total amount of $145,000, an 89.6% increase.
Among those in support of higher salaries for top city officials were building and developer groups, including Kobayashi’s Pakkala.
“I feel as a community member it makes strides to more fairly compensate all of our elected and appointed officials,” Pakkala said during remote testimony at that meeting. “I’m 100% supportive of all the recommended increases.”
Ultimately, six Council members — including Waters, whose own pay as chair jumped nearly 60.2% to $123,288 from $76,968 — would receive pay bumps to $113,304 per year.
Three others on the panel — Tulba, Andria Tupola and Radiant Cordero — would, in written memorandums, formally reject their pay increases, keeping their annual salaries unchanged at $68,904.
