Ko Olina project to break ground

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Centex Destination Properties is scheduled to break ground this morning on the first phase of homes at Ko Olina Kai Golf Estates and Villas, the fourth residential community at Ko Olina Resort & Marina.

Centex Destination, a resort-home unit of giant Dallas-based homebuilder Centex Homes, in October paid $30 million for a 34-acre parcel at the West O'ahu resort, and plans to build 60 single-family and 264 townhomes over roughly four years.

The first units are expected to be released for sale later this month or early March at prices ranging from the low $400,000s to low $600,000s for two- and three-bedroom townhomes, and from about $900,000 to $1.1 million for three- and four-bedroom single-family homes.

The project, ringed by several holes of the Ko Olina golf course, is the first major addition to the resort since last year's approval of a tax-credit financed aquarium expected to break ground this year.

The project also marks a return to building homes on O'ahu for Centex, which developed several thousand homes on the island 40 or so years ago, including some in Kailua.

Centex also is developing homes at Waikoloa Beach Resort on the Big Island in a project called Kolea, which has taken in more than $60 million in sales.

Bruce Sloan, Hawai'i division president for Centex Destination, said he expects buyers will be a roughly equal mix of residents and visitors, similar to other recent residential projects at Ko Olina.

Sloan said initial inventory released for sale will be about 25 percent of single-family and townhome units.

The ongoing concrete strike is not expected to affect initial construction, which primarily consists of grading earth. Foundation work isn't scheduled until the summer. The first completed homes are expected to be delivered in the first quarter of next year.

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