REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2008
HAHAIONE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CAFETERIA
CANDIDATES FORUM: STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DISTRICT 17 - Beth-Ann Kozlovich, executive producer and host of Hawaii Public Radio’s “Town Square” and “On Politics,” served as moderator. Kozlovich welcomed everyone to the Candidates Forum. Amy Monk (Democrat) and Gene Ward (Republican) responded to the following questions: The Board thinks this is important.
10. Hawaii Kai has very little Hawaiian archival information. When members of the community recently turned to the State Historical Preservation Division to help with preservation of the Hawea Heiau, the division fell short of federal law and mandates regarding protection of Traditional Cultural Property. What will you do to help the Hawaii Kai community preserve cultural sites, identified and yet to be discovered, as well as improve the function and services of the State Historical Preservation Division?
Hawaii Kai New Real Estate Development :
HALE ALII
AT H A W A I I K A I
Hale Alii - House of the Chief - Gorgeous and Unique & a Totally Different Residential resort Type of Living
Inspired by Kahala Mandarin Hotel .
Groundbreaking should take place by the end of 2009
One of the last significant buildable parcels in Hawaii Kai will be used for a luxury condominium complex called Hale Alii with starting prices at about $1 million.
The project would be adjacent to the existing D.R. Horton Schuler development Moana Kai and Nanea Kai at the corner of Hawaii Kai Drive and Keahole Street.
RENDERING COURTESY OF CDS INTERNATIONAL
Artist's rendering of Hale Alii, a luxury condo planned for Hawaii Kai a 11-story complex
The design of this project will feature two separate buildings behind a security gate, with two acres of water features, park and greenery—a landscaped oasis of calm and serenity with the idea of cascading waterfalls…..
Hale Alii Park Amenities will include:
Lounge and Bar with Kitchen, Spa and Sauna 2000 sf;
Rest pavilion by the pool with adjacent hydrotherapy;
Yoga, Aerobic, Tai chi and Gathering Cabana;
Multi-purpose Cabana w/grill for parties and meeting;
Hobby room for Painting and crafts and more…
TYPICAL 3-BEDROOM UNIT , interior 2026 sq ft , lanai 206 sq ft over looking courtyard ;
TYPICAL 2-BEDROOM UNIT, Interior 1600 sq ft, lanai 153 sq ft over looking courtyard
“When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt.” Henry Kaiser
Hawaii Kai was originally developed by Henry J Kaiser in the 1960s. This photo of the beginning of the community of Hawaii Kai on the island of Oahu
view SLIDE SHOW OF HAWAII KAI NOW AND
MORE PHOTOS OF THE PROJECT click here
HALE ALI’I GROUP
Mike Klein
Joe brown
Marisa Gey
Architects: CDS International is a premier Hawai‘i architectural consultancy and design firm based in Honolulu, with projects spanning Hawai‘i, Asia, and the Pacific Basin.
Among many successful projects of CDS International Grand Wailea Resort and Spa on Maui is a complete world class luxury resort hotel offering spectacular amenities.
And more: http://www.cdsintl.com/projects.php
Project Management: Brett Hill Management Group, LLC will manage the design and construction of the project. Consulting projects: Hokua, Capitol Place, Hawaiki Tower. Right now Brett Hill Management is also looking after the designing & the construction of Waikiki Trump Tower - unique and phenomenal development of Outrigger Enterprises Waikiki Beach Walk Project.
Interior Design: SN Design, (principal Susan Nessel), Hawaii
Suzanne Nessel Design Interiors is leading the interior design for Trump International Hotel & Tower Waikiki Beach Walk. Suzanne's experience includes residential projects at Hualalai, Kuki'o Beach Club Resort, and The Watermark Waikiki.
It would be aimed at the high-end luxury market, on par with the Hokua in Kakaako. Mike Klein developer of Hale Alii expects second-home buyers, wealthy retirees and downsizing baby boomers to be prospective clients.
To receive the data sheet, we ask that you provide your name, address and phone number. Please understand that you will be registered with the developer as a client of Prudential Locations, LLC (If you are already working with another real estate broker, please contact us at Elena.Roud@pruhawaii.com and we will tell you how to proceed if you wish to work with us and receive our proprietary information on Hale Alii at Hawaii Kai .
Please e-mail us at
The data should provide all the information you need to know about the project. However, if you have a specific question, you can contact us at any time at 808-224-7274 .
This is not intended to be an offering or solicitation for sale in any jurisdiction where this project is not registered in accordance with applicable law or where such offering or solicitation would otherwise be prohibited by law.
Luxury condo plan splits Hawaii Kai community
A request to build a 90-foot high luxury condominium -- 30 feet over the height limit -- in Hawaii Kai is getting support from residents but faces opposition from its immediate neighbors. Developer 21st Century Homes is asking that the city raise the height limit and allow two buildings in its proposed 297-unit Hale Alii condominium to be 90 feet tall.
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"It's an excellent plan, it really is," 21st Century Homes marketing manager Mike Klein told the committee. "We have, generally speaking, fairly good community support. We have the neighbors, of course, that are upset here ... (and) that's where our problem lies."
The 3.8-acre site at Hawaii Kai Drive and Keahole Street is one of the last remaining parcels in Hawaii Kai for condominium development, Klein said, and the 90-foot towers would allow for the project to be built with a terrace effect that would create more open space fronting the complex and a more pleasing design.
The city administration told Council members it supports the change.
"We feel that this will improve the visual overall quality of this development," said Robert Reed of the city Department of Planning and Permitting.
The Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board also endorsed the project in 2004.
But neighbors decried the project, saying the buildings are too tall for the neighborhood and they will block views, sunlight and breezes.
"It's just going to be like a brick wall," said Amy Shimamura, a resident of the Moana Kai townhouses across from the site of proposed the condominium.
Klein told the committee that if the project is going to be required to stay within the 60-foot height limit, the developer would be forced to design a building that has less open space, looks more box-like and would run right up to the sidewalk.
"It's offensive and we don't really want to do that," Klein said. "We wanted to do something a little nicer and special."
Elizabeth Reilly, a member of the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board, said the residents who live near the site believe they will have to endure a "diminished quality of life factor" if the buildings tower to 90 feet.
"They're also really concerned that their ... neighborhood will eventually be called the back alley of Hale Alii," Reilly said.
Reilly said the ordinance governing the height restriction -- which was changed in 2002 to the lower height limit -- should be followed.
"We're trying really hard to maintain a suburb way of life," Reilly said.
"I understand there are those who are opposed to this," Councilman Todd Apo said. "But I think we would have difficulty going against something that the neighborhood board has approved and taken a formal position on."
Zoning Chairman Rod Tam, in recommending approval of the height increase, said he acknowledges the community concerns. "It's not our responsibility here on the Council to pull the community together, quite frankly," he said.
$1 million condos planned for Hawaii Kai
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Nina Wu Pacific Business News
One of the last significant buildable parcels in Hawaii Kai will be used for a 300-unit luxury condominium complex called Hale Alii with starting prices at about $1 million.
The site at the foot of Mariners Ridge was once planned for housing for the elderly, but the developer says demand for high-end homes prompted the change in the scope and marketing of the project.
Mike Klein, marketing director of the development team, 21st Century Homes, said the 3.5-acre site is the last remaining developable parcel in the area. The project would be adjacent to the existing D.R. Horton Schuler development at the corner of Hawaii Kai Drive and Keahole Street.
The design of the $120 million project will feature two separate buildings behind a security gate, a small park, waterfalls and a putting green. The developer is seeking a variance to allow him to build two 90-foot-high buildings, 30 feet above the current maximum allowed.
Two- and three-bedroom units are expected to go on the market this summer, with an average starting price of about $1 million.
Klein said the project is on par with new luxury towers like Hokua at 1288 Ala Moana Blvd. and Watermark Waikiki, which have found strong demand.
He expects second-home buyers, wealthy retirees and downsizing baby boomers to be prospective clients.
Hale Alii may seem like yet another development capitalizing on the residential high-rise boom, but the project has been on the drawing board for more than five years.
21st Century Homes bought the corner parcels from Moanalua Associates in 2000, and since then the project has been a "moving target," said Joe Brown, president of the company.
Klein also is the founder of the Hawaii Intergenerational Community Development Association, which developed the neighboring Kaluanui Senior Apartments in Hawaii Kai about two years ago.
While the original intention was to create more senior homes, those plans changed as construction costs skyrocketed.
"Construction costs have risen so much in the last three years, all you can afford is high-end so that the budget's not upside down," Klein said.
Groundbreaking should take place within a year, with completion expected in 2008.
Though he is one of the last developers out with a project, Klein is confident there will be buyers for the luxury units this summer.
"It's all subject to supply and demand in a particular area," he said. "It's the only product available other than Stanford Carr's."
Real estate analyst Ricky Cassiday agreed, noting that the prices are similar to what the Hokua asked for, at $600 per square foot.
"The high end of the market is more than capable of absorbing all those units, if they're really good units," he said.
Klein is still negotiating the final details for the second building, on a lot behind the one fronting Hawaii Kai Drive, with another investment partner.
A new gate should soon go up at the site, replacing a temporary white picket fence. A sales center also is planned for the site this summer, with East Oahu Realty as the project's broker.
Hawaiiana Management is signed on to manage Hale Alii.
Designs by Honolulu firm CDS International call for two concrete buildings, with underground parking. Current zoning allows for 60-foot-tall buildings, but the team will seek a variance allowing them to build higher.
Prior zoning allowed for a height of 150 feet, until it was changed in the mid-1980s after the proliferation of condominium towers along Hawaii Kai Drive.
Though it initially provoked resistance from anti-development community groups, 21st Century's final design plans were approved by the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board.
Klein said he still envisions a senior housing project being built on the parcel that his partnership owns between the Oahu Club and Hale Alii, but those plans are still in development.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Hale Alii developer pleads for 'relook'
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
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HAWAI'I KAI — Real Estate developer Mike Klein is struggling with plans to build new affordable housing units in Hawai'i Kai's last large parcel of undeveloped land.
Under an agreement reached with the city in 2000, Klein was to build 100 units by 2007 in his Hale Alii condominium project at Hawai'i Kai Drive and Keahole Street. He has built 31 units there to meet the city's requirements for affordable housing in the community.
Klein missed the deadline in December to get city approval for the remaining 69 units and sought an extension that would give him until 2010 to build them, but his request was denied by the city's Department of Planning and Permitting on March 6.
Hale Alii will total 296 units and, as currently designed, will be stair-stepped with the lower buildings near the road and the taller buildings against the mountain on the rear of the five acres.
"We have an existing affordable housing plan for the 100 units and just because we got a denial, doesn't mean our existing plan is dead," Klein said.
To move forward, Klein must get approval from the City Council. He plans to seek amendments to the unilateral agreement that outlines the development guidelines for the parcels of land, including the affordable housing requirements. He would like the City Council to agree to accepting 100 affordable units total, with the remaining units to be built by 2010. If that doesn't happen, he potentially could be required to build 147 affordable housing units instead of the 100.
A higher number of affordable units, however, would require the developer to redesign his project, eliminating underground parking, changing the construction materials, roofing and the open courtyard that expanded the setbacks from the standard 10 feet from the sidewalk, Klein said.
"It's a very, very complicated process at (the city) Department of Planning and Permitting," Klein said. "The (Department of Planning and Permitting) has offered to relook at the decision not to give us the extension of time. We have to provide them with information. We don't know if that relook will put us where we need to be so we have taken (on) the dramatic process of amending the Unilateral Agreement."
Klein will have to submit paperwork to make a case that there is a "compelling" reason for reconsideration, said Henry Eng, director of the city Department of Planning and Permitting. Klein said he has not submitted his application yet because he is in the process of "up-front" negotiations with planning staff and he first wanted to make a presentation to the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board, which he recently did.
Klein is founder of the nonprofit Hawai'i Intergenerational Community Development Association, and the major shareholder in the for-profit 21st Century Homes, which are the builders of Hale Alii. The plan is to rent the 69 affordable housing units to senior citizens for 10 years.
Klein also will be seeking a zone change so that he can build his project up to nine stories, and wants to receive affordable housing credits that could be used to lower the number of affordable units he has to build under pending revisions to the city's Affordable Housing guidelines.
During his presentation to the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board last month, he asked for support for an extension of time but did not disclose that the city had denied his initial request.
The board voted 8-2 in favor of the request.
'TOO EXPENSIVE'
Klein purchased the property with the understanding that he would have to build affordable units based on an agreement reached 20 years ago when Kaiser Development owned the land and asked the city to rezone the area from preservation to apartment. Affordable housing requirements at the time called for the owner of the land to make at least 10 percent of the units affordable after 1,200 units were built in surrounding parcels of land.
Today, the city requires developers to make at least 30 percent of their housing units affordable to low-income households or they must pay fees in lieu of building the affordable units. Developers also can obtain credits for each affordable housing unit they build, Eng said.
But in the case of the Hale Alii development, Eng said the unilateral agreement "specifically states that credits cannot be substituted for units."
The affordable units can either be for sale or rent, with rentals offered for a minimum of 10 years, Eng said.
In 2000, the agreement that runs with the Hale Alii land was amended to 100 total affordable units that had to be built by 2005. Eng said the deadlines were established as "incentives to get 100 affordable units by 2005."
The completed 31 affordable units will be rented for 61 years at rates that are 30 percent of the median household income. Rents average $710 a month including electricity, Klein said.
There are not many developers building affordable housing because it's just too expensive, he said.
"I plan to build another 100 units in Hawai'i Kai," Klein said. "There are many options on the table here. It's not a do-or-die situation. Affordable housing needs to be done."
That could be welcome news for residents dipping into their savings every month to pay their rent, Klein said.
But Klein is struggling to complete the project, which led to missing the deadline.
Klein said he needs more time because of a "myriad of reasons," including backlogged consultants, revisions to the plans, the time it took to get a park plan approved and to get the lot line adjustment.
"There are many options on the table," he said. "It's not a do-or-die, sink-or-swim deal. But every day we go beyond this day costs go up. "
Said Eng: "The consequence of missing the deadline is that the developer no longer has the option of building 100 units (total) for low-moderate income households to meet the affordable housing condition, and now must build 178 units for low-income households."
Klein said he doesn't see it that way.
If forced to build more units, Klein said he would have to amend his current building design.
"We have spent an enormous amount of time to incorporate the community's concerns in terms of view planes," said Joe Brown, 21st Century Homes president. "We have gone through considerable expense and time to make our plans aesthetically pleasing. The extension of time allows us to keep the building format the same.
"The market units will subsidize our affordable housing. Delays cost money. We're trying to build affordable housing. We need help."
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Wayne Levy, a member of the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board who voted in opposition to Klein's request for more time, believes the board voted without all the facts before it.
"He threatened us with an ugly building if he has to build more ... housing and is not allowed to do it his way. I don't see how that's for the greater good especially when the affordable housing is for only 10 years," Levy said.
The board voted to support Klein's request despite Levy's concerns.
Lester Muraoka, Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board chairman, voted to support the request for an extension and to amend the unilateral agreement because he wants the developer to maintain his current plan.
"The developer would have to create a different plan due to the parking structure and construction material," Muraoka said. "Also, the developer had worked extensively with the community to come up with the current design and this process might have to start again."
The support of the community carries weight when the city considers requests such as Klein's, Eng said.
Height boost sought for Hawaii Kai condo project
The Hawaii Kai luxury condominium project could jump to 90 feet
The fate of Hale Alii, a $200 million luxury condominium project on one of the last developable parcels available in Hawaii Kai, hinges on a vote tomorrow in the Honolulu City Council.
21st Century Homes Inc. wants to build two 90-foot tall buildings at the corner of Hawaii Kai Drive and Keahole Street, where limits range from 40 to 60 feet.
Some say the increased height will help by leaving more open space at street level. But others say it will block views, and still others are concerned about a Hawaiian archeological site and nearby wetlands.
Honolulu City Council is set tomorrow to determine the future of a luxury condominium project in Hawaii Kai on one of the last developable parcels in the neighborhood.
Developer 21st Century Homes Inc. is seeking to rezone 3.8 acres at the corner of Hawaii Kai Drive and Keahole Street into an apartment district with a 90-foot instead of a 40- and 60-foot height limit.
Height limit voteBill 47 is scheduled for a vote tomorrow in the Honolulu City Council. The measure would rezone the site of the planned Hale Alii condominium in Hawaii Kai from a medium density apartment district (with 40 and 60-foot height limits) to A-2 (with 90-foot height limit). |
But the project has encountered controversy. A vocal group of Hawaii Kai residents are opposed to any new developments in the neighborhood, particularly with a height change. Yet another group is concerned about a nearby archeological site and wetlands.
But others they prefer the taller design, which would result in a less boxy appearance and more generous setback from the road than an earlier proposal.
Hawaii Kai resident Arla Harvey, said the new, 90-foot-tall design would make Hawaii Kai Drive seem less like an urban canyon. Other supporters said they liked the taller height for aesthetic reasons, as long as the number of units remained the same.
Proponents of smart growth in urban areas typically support taller developments that leave more open space at the ground level. But the question is whether or not Hawaii Kai has yet become a dense, urban area.
The developer is including a unilateral agreement which details conditions for the development, such as an open courtyard both in the front and back, and a 40-foot distance between Hale Alii and Moana Kai, the complex behind it. That includes a five-foot landscape buffer lined with trees and palms.
Mike Klein, marketing manager for 21st Century Homes, said he believed the agreement, based on input from the community, had reached a happy medium.
Over the years, the height limits allowed on Hawaii Kai Drive have gone up and down -- from 150 feet at the time 21st Century bought the site to 60 feet in 2002 in response to community concerns. Thus, driving mauka, the skyline is lower, with new townhome projects like D.R. Horton Schuler Division's Moana Kai and Nanea Kai.
Klein is also the founder of a non-profit group that developed Kaluanui Senior Apartments in Hawaii Kai several years ago. About a third of Hale Alii is expected to be set aside as affordable rentals.
Opposition to the new project, however, comes from two sides.
The residents at Moana Kai oppose Hale Alii because it would block their views and increase traffic. Others said they opposed "spot zoning" during a review of the East Honolulu Sustainable Communities plan.
Bruce Schneider, board president of the Moana Kai Homeowners Association, said 90 feet is just too tall and inconsistent with the rest of the area, pinning Moana Kai between it and the ridge. He said a 40-foot tall project, or another town home project, would be more tolerable.
Another group, the Livable Hawaii Kai Hui, said it has concerns about an ancient Hawaiian site slated to become a private recreational park.
Chris Cramer, speaking on behalf of Hui, said he's particularly concerned about preserving the history of the area as well as nearby wetlands. On a preliminary site map, he said developers appear to have a swimming pool right next to the archeological site
The Hawea heiau and an ancient fishing village both were formerly found in the project's vicinity, said Cramer, which he believes contains an old well, numerous petroglyphs, rock structures and an ancient grove of coconut trees.
Three separate archaeological reports were conducted on the site -- in 1985, 1993 and 1994.
Klein said 21st Century will be commissioning its own archaeological inventory survey, and will be working with the state historic preservation division, which visited the site earlier this month.
State archaeologist Teresa Davan said she was unable to make any identifications due to dense vegetation growth, but that the developer has been cooperative, and has agreed to do another survey.
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