Wide range of prices, care offered
| • | Senior projects booming |
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
Senior-living projects under construction in Hawai'i include a wide range of services and fee structures. They include fee-simple condominiums, rentals and a hybrid called continuing care retirement communities, also known as life care.
• Kahala Nui, the largest, is a life-care community that broke ground last week and is scheduled to be open in early 2005 near Star of the Sea School in Wai'alae.
The $183 million project has 393 units, including 270 independent-living apartments, 22 memory support units, 41 assisted-living suites and 60 nursing-unit beds.
Residents must be at least 62 years old. They pay a one-time entry fee ranging from $364,000 to $784,000, 90 percent of which is refundable should they move out or die.
Monthly fees for the one- to three-bedroom units range from $1,695 to $3,795 single occupancy (add $795 for a couple), including linen service, housekeeping, one meal a day in the dining hall, and recreational facilities.
Residents are able to move from independent living to higher levels of care as needed without extra charge.
Joyce Timpson said after a year of marketing and taking deposits, 210 of the 270 independent-living apartments are reserved, and she expects the rest to be taken by the time construction is finished in two years. About 80 percent of seniors reserving units live within five miles, she added. Nonprofit Kahala Senior Living Community Inc. is the developer.
• The Plaza at Punchbowl near the top of Ward Avenue is a rental project with 136 beds spread over 108 assisted-living apartments.
The Plaza at Punchbowl is also designed to allow residents to grow older in one place, providing cleaning service, meals and activities for independent seniors as well as assistance with daily needs, and memory care for those with Alzheimer's disease or dementia. The $22 million project, developed by local real-estate firm MW Group, is under construction and scheduled to be completed in December.
Rental prices at The Plaza range from $3,100 to $4,200 a month, including three meals a day and other services. Marketing should begin in a couple of weeks with reservations taken starting in March. MW Group principal Mike Wood said the firm already has received more than 50 inquiries.
• Oaktree Capital Management LLC is converting the 600-room Ohana Hobron Hotel in Waikiki into a 165-unit fee-simple condominium for seniors age 55 and up at a cost of $20 million.
Unit prices range from about $300,000 to $700,000 and higher for penthouse units in the 44-story tower on Hobron Lane. Project general manager Jon Tapner said he expects 90 percent of buyers to come from Waikiki.
The developer is not taking sales reservations yet for the still-unnamed project, but Tapner said about 100 calls have been received from the public over the past 90 days.
Oaktree is considering adding assisted-living units, a skilled-nursing facility or more independent-living condos in place of about 80 low-rise apartments surrounding the tower that are being demolished.
• Kaluanui is the smallest senior-living project under construction. Located in Hawai'i Kai next to a Schuler Homes townhouse project being built on Hawai'i Kai Drive, the $5.1 million Kaluanui will contain 31 rental units with rents ranging from $400 to $726 a month for seniors 62 years and older. It is being developed by nonprofit Hawai'i Intergenerational Community Development Association.
