Campbell Estate revives plans for Kapolei West
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
Campbell Estate is reviving plans for a long-delayed residential golf course community that would add more than 2,300 homes to the growing "second city" of Kapolei.
Envisioned for completion by 2018, the project would help solidify Kapolei as O'ahu's second commercial and residential core, but also add to concerns about traffic congestion.
Campbell Estate affiliate Aina Nui Corp. is beginning to gather community input for the West Kapolei project that tentatively would include 2,370 homes, an 18-hole golf course, park space and retail establishments on 535 acres between the city of Kapolei and Ko Olina Resort & Marina.
The greater Kapolei area has about 21,000 homes today and is projected to have 32,000 by 2010.
Traffic generated by new housing has been a growing headache for West O'ahu residents, about 350 of whom turned out at a community meeting late last year to complain. One group has called for a moratorium on home construction until adequate roads and schools are built.
Campbell Estate, Hawai'i's second-largest private landowner and the master developer of Kapolei, hopes to relieve some of the congestion by fronting $11 million to expedite work at Fort Barrette Road and Farrington Highway, where routes from Makakilo, Kapolei and 'Ewa converge. That work is expected to be done by the end of the year.
Area neighborhood board chairwoman Maeda Timson has said she has faith that the transportation plan will accommodate additional homes.
The Kapolei West project, in an early conceptual phase, is a less dense version of proposals that other developers failed to move forward in 1991 and 2001.
The community, dubbed Kapolei West by Campbell Estate, was first proposed in 1991 by original Ko Olina developer Herbert Horita, who had an option to buy neighboring estate property and envisioned 3,500 homes around a second golf course for the resort.
Horita's plan imploded with the bursting of the Japanese investment bubble followed by Hawai'i's economic slowdown that lasted for most of the 1990s.
Three years ago developer Jeff Stone, who with partners acquired the mostly undeveloped resort in 1998, announced plans to purchase 324 acres of the same property to develop a golf course surrounded by 2,900 homes. But the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, derailed financing.
Since then, O'ahu's home market has only become hotter, especially at Ko Olina, where some new homes are selling for more than $1 million.
Last month, Centex Homes said it received 415 applications to buy 148 homes that quickly sold out at prices from $468,000 to $1.4 million.
"The way home prices have gone, a developer can come in there and produce housing for local residents without too much problem, as well as do second homes (for visitors) out there for a lot higher," said Ricky Cassiday, a local residential real estate analyst.
Cassiday said the median single-family home price in West O'ahu last month was $360,000, meaning half the homes sold for more and half for less. At Kapolei West, some homes high up on the hill with an ocean view overlooking golf links could fetch more than $1.5 million, in Cassiday's opinion. "It's that easy," he said.
Kapolei West developer Aina Nui is working to refine plans using input from area residents, and would seek a zoning change for the former sugarcane land. The company is considering developing the project alone or with a partner, according to Aina Nui President Donna Goth.
The company is scheduled to make a presentation of conceptual plans to the Makakilo/ Kapolei/ Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board on July 28 at 7 p.m. in the Laulima Room of the Campbell Building at 1001 Kamokila Blvd.
Earlier this month, Aina Nui made a presentation to the Honokai Hale/ Nanakai Gardens Community Association. The association's president did not return a call yesterday seeking comment.
Campbell Estate spokeswoman Theresia McMurdo said the tentative plans for 2,370 homes on 535 acres compare with Stone's plan of 2,900 homes on 324 acres. Other elements in the current plan include 25 acres of park space, 44 acres of open space and a shopping complex.
McMurdo said the estate has promised to restrict height limits to preserve ocean views of neighboring Honokai Hale/ Nanakai Gardens residents, and agreed to move a proposed convenience store closer to that community.
Timson, the neighborhood board chairwoman, said she likes the reduced density of the project and complimented the estate for sharing its early-stage plans with residents so any potential concerns can be addressed by modifying development.
In addition to Kapolei West, other homes planned nearby in coming years include Villages of Kapolei VIII and Mehana.
Mehana is a Schuler Homes project of 1,150 homes on 120 acres in the heart of Kapolei to be built over 11 to 16 years starting in 2007. It would include partial money for and a site to build an elementary school and was supported by the area neighborhood board by a 6-1 vote.
Like Kapolei West, Mehana requires a zoning change, though the development designations needed are approved on the city's development plan.
The Kapolei Master Plan, adopted by the city in 1977, calls for 32,000 acres of development on mostly former canefields owned by Campbell Estate. The 890-acre city of Kapolei broke ground in 1990.
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
