Construction boom hits Maui; 600 homes going up
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
A boom in home construction is headed for Central Maui as three developers gear up to start selling and building more than 600 homes at the largely undeveloped master-planned community Kehalani.
Towne Development of HawaiÎi
The construction worth more than $100 million is expected to greatly alleviate one of the tightest housing markets in the state and ease pressure on rising home prices as well as jump-start a troubled project when initial sales start in mid-November.
Planned construction in Central Maui is expected to ease one of the tightest housing markets in the state.
"It's been a long haul," said homebuilder Stanford Carr, who bought the stalled development in 1999 only to face foreclosure, which he avoided by selling a quarter of the 540-acre project to other developers.
Carr said he plans to start marketing 132 multi-family two- to three-bedroom townhomes in a project called Kehalani Gardens at prices from the high $100,000s to low $200,000s on Nov. 15, then break ground in late November or early December.
Another Carr project with the same timetable is Maunaleo at Kehalani — 83 single-family homes with three to five bedrooms ranging in price from the high $300,000s to low $500,000s.
Towne Development of Hawai'i plans to start taking reservations soon on 140 single-family homes with three to four bedrooms starting in the mid-$300,000s, and anticipates closing the first sales by the end of next year.
Contact the developers
Other pending land purchases would allow Towne to develop 92 condominiums starting in the mid-$200,000s that would be available in the spring along with 72 single-family homes for about $600,000 or home lots for about $300,000.
Another local developer, Mike Mullahey, is considering building about 100 units for seniors in conjunction with a Mainland senior-housing operator, according to Carr.
Charlie Jencks, a Maui development consultant and former county public works director, said the Kehalani developments, if built as anticipated, would be the most homes under construction on the island.
"Any new product coming into the marketplace is going to help with the pricing pressure," he said, noting that the affordable entry-level and move-up markets need more inventory.
The median price of an existing single-family home on Maui through September this year was $415,000, compared with $370,000 for the same period last year, according to the Realtors Association of Maui.
That means half the homes sold for more than $415,000 and half for less.
The median price for condos during the first nine months of the year was $229,000, compared with $195,000 during the same year-ago period.
Bob Cella, owner of Coldwell Banker Island Properties on Maui, said the low-end projects at Kehalani are sorely needed. "I'm sure they'll be absorbed very quickly," he said.
Carr said the constrained home supply on the island has prodded prices higher and higher. "It's nuts how prices have appreciated on Maui ... ," he said. "There's a need for providing housing in (the lower) price range."
Kehalani is master-planned for 2,000 homes over the next 10 to 15 years plus a commercial center, school and several parks.
A few communities were built by C. Brewer & Co. and its spinoff Hawaii Land & Farming, which struggled with a weak housing market in the early to mid-1990s.
The publicly traded company was delisted from the Nasdaq stock market in 1998 and was bought out by Carr a year later for $24 million, including the assumption of $20 million of debt.
In 2002, lenders moved to foreclose on Carr, who was able to satisfy creditors after selling 138 acres for about $40 million.
Earlier this year Carr kicked off the first project since his acquisition, Olena at Kehalani, taking 100 reservations for 32 single-family homes, which sold for $320,000 to $370,000 in two days in June.
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
