Local, Mainland firms partner for rental condo
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
Local developer MW Group has partnered with a Mainland senior-living firm to build a 108-unit independent and assisted-living rental condominium on the slopes of Punchbowl.
Serge Krivatsy/MW Group
The six-story project, at 918 Lunalilo St., will help counter what industry experts say is a need for senior-living residences in Hawai'i.
A rendering of The Plaza at Punchbowl, which experts say will help address a need for more senior-living residences.
The Plaza at Punchbowl will be developed at a cost of $22 million, and is scheduled to break ground next month with completion set for December 2003.
The project is designed to allow residents to age in place, with rental units providing independent living, services to help those who need assistance with daily needs, and memory care for those with Alzheimer's or dementia.
Planned on-site services include a beauty parlor, library, fitness center, cleaning service, meals and activities.
"There are not enough options for retirees with needs that vary from independent living, through assisted living and specialized dementia care," said Rick Skelton, president of Sound Health Hawaii.
Skelton's firm is an affiliate of Bainbridge, Wash.-based Sound Health Management, a developer, owner and manager of senior living facilities on the Mainland. Sound Health Hawaii will co-own, co-develop and manage the Plaza at Punchbowl.
According to Skelton, a recent market study found the need for assisted-living residences outnumbered supply by 5 to 1. "We want to change that," he said.
Serge Krivatsy, project director with MW, said that nursing homes unfortunately are in too many cases the only option for older residents. "There are a lot of people in nursing homes who don't have to be there," he said. "They don't want to be in such a clinical setting."
The number of large-scale assisted-living complexes in Hawai'i has grown in the past several years, with projects such as One Kalakaua Senior Living, Hawaii Kai Retirement Community and The Ponds at Punalu'u.
According to MW principal Mike Wood, only The Ponds and another facility in Kapolei are strictly rental projects.
Rental prices at the Plaza should range from $3,100 to $4,200 a month, including three meals a day and other services.
Wood said marketing should begin shortly, and he hopes to have 30 percent to 40 percent of the studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units pre-leased before construction is finished.
MW acquired the property last year from a local accountant who in the late '90s planned a similar project, Crowne Vista, but ran into financing problems under an immigrant investor program shut off by immigration authorities.
Wood said MW, which recently bought the downtown office high-rise Pioneer Plaza and the retail and office complex Nimitz Business Center, began researching the residential senior-living market about five years ago.
It was shortly after Wood's mother in California moved from a two-bedroom town house in a gated retirement community into a rental studio at an assisted-living complex.
"I'll never forget that Christmas after she moved there," Wood said. "She called me and said, 'Thank you for my new life.' "
Wood said his mother married at the facility and died about a year ago.
"California, Oregon and Washington are so far ahead of us," he said. "It's so established there. People know what their options are. (Here) there are not a lot of choices. We hope to build what O'ahu needs."
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
