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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, December 9, 2003

Affordable rentals next project for 'Ewa homes

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

A nonprofit affordable-housing developer plans to build 240 low-income rental apartments at 'Ewa Villages, completing redevelopment plans for the second of three plantation villages being revitalized under a long-term city initiative.

The estimated $30 million project awaits financing. If successful, it will help alleviate a growing shortage of low-income rental housing on O'ahu.

Developer Hui Kauhale Inc. said it expects to finance the project primarily by selling tax-exempt bonds, and is seeking grants and other sources of money to make up the balance.

An affiliate of nonprofit affordable-housing development and management firm EAH Inc. of California, Hui Kauhale was selected by the city in 1999 to develop a vacant 23-acre site off Renton Road across from 'Ewa Elementary School.

In May, Hui Kauhale completed purchase of the land for $5.9 million, using $5 million in city-administered federal community redevelopment block grants.

Hui Kauhale anticipates starting construction in 2006 and finishing the first units in 2007. The completed project would be the last for the Renton and Tenney village areas of 'Ewa Villages.

Francis Aoki, Hui Kauhale president and co-managing member of Pan Pacific Mortgage, said Hawai'i's strengthening real estate market is leading to an alarming rise in rental housing prices and loss of inventory to condominium conversions, pricing lower-income households out of the market.

Darlene Hein, executive director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, said the need for low-cost housing is dire. Before the home market took off, about 80 percent of government-assisted Section 8 renters could find an apartment within 90 days, she said. Today, the figure is only 50 percent to 60 percent. "We are in a rental crunch," she said.

Aoki said rental rates for the Hui Kauhale project would be based on construction and financing costs, but would be affordable for low-income and very low-income families and seniors.

The 'Ewa Villages project was established in 1993 to preserve the plantation village community after the Oahu Sugar mill closed. The city bought 600 acres of private property, invested in infrastructure and worked with developers to renovate and build homes in and around Tenney, Renton and Varona villages near the end of Renton Road.

Projects have included a golf course, park, Alzheimer's care facility, 96 homes developed by Unity House and a 126-lot subdivision created by Self-Help Housing Corp. of Hawaii.

In April, the St. Francis Healthcare Foundation said it would develop a 300-unit senior housing community, which, with the Hui Kauhale project, would complete redevelopment of Tenney and Renton villages. Varona village still awaits revitalization.

EAH manages about 5,000 affordable rental units — about 4,000 in California and 700 in Hawai'i, including Kukui Tower in Honolulu, Kalani Gardens in Mililani and Kulana Nani Apartments in Kane'ohe.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.