Judge halts lease-to-fee conversion process at Kahala apartment site

Advertiser Staff

A court has stopped the forced sale of land beneath The Kahala Beach Apartments by ruling that there had not been a sufficient number of qualified applicants to support condemnation of the Kamehameha Schools property.

To acquire the land through a lease-to-fee conversion process, lessors of at least 25 units had to live there continuously while condemnation proceedings were pending.

Circuit Judge Eden Hifo ruled that several lessors had rented their units to others or had another principal residence.

The building is one of many in Honolulu on land that occupants hope to acquire through the city's leasehold conversion ordinance.

A task group of interested parties has studied the ordinance to determine if it can be made more fair to property owners and owners of condominiums on leased land.

The group must issue a report to the City Council next month but has reached no consensus on whether to amend or repeal the ordinance, according to a draft copy.