Kapolei projects will add homes, jobs
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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser West O'ahu Writer
KAPOLEI — Three projects planned for west Kapolei over the next two decades will bring more than 6,500 new homes and 7,420 new jobs into O'ahu's Second City.
The projects are among the the final pieces of the Kapolei Master Plan, first discussed in the mid-1950s, to develop a second urban core on the island. They also have been part of the city's 'Ewa Development Plan.
Kapolei Development Co., a successor company to the Estate of James Campbell, will continue on as master planner and major landowner for the region.
The projects, with an estimated economic impact of $66 billion through 2020, were presented at the Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board meeting last night. About a dozen people testified in support of the projects.
RESIDENTS MIXED
Brent Buckley, a Kapolei resident for 12 years, said he's concerned about traffic there. He believes the projects will help the situation because it will bring jobs.
"Transportation is an issue but until we build jobs in the city of Kapolei, people have to get on the road to get to the jobs, which are in Honolulu," the University of Hawai'i-Manoa animal science professor said.
Lolita Takeda, a Kapolei resident for the past 14 years, said she also is impressed by the projects. "Not only are they bringing businesses, they're providing more opportunities in terms of jobs and housing as well as infrastructure and quality of life." Takeda added: "I cannot see Kapolei planned any better."
Several neighborhood board members made a motion for a vote to support the projects. Others, however, said they want to see more information and asked the developer to come back. The motion died. The developer is not required to gain the support of the board to advance its projects.
While the projects are already designated for development by the state Land Use Commission, they require zoning approvals from the City Council. Kapolei Property Development hopes to obtain zoning approvals by 2009, said David Rae, the company's senior vice president in charge of development.
URBAN CENTER
Combined, the projects will help fulfill the company's goal of a living and working center for West O'ahu. "This is a project with a public purpose — to create an urban center," Rae said.
Steve Kelly, director of development for Kapolei Property Development, said company and city planning officials decided it was best to proceed with the three projects simultaneously to more accurately gauge the effects and benefits.
The three projects are:
Types of homes on the 1,781 acres will range from 1-acre lots near the top of the development to apartments and townhouses nearer to the freeway.
There also will be one elementary school and one middle school, as well as about 30 acres of commercial space. Sixty percent of the property will be left in open space.
Access into the neighborhood will be primarily through an extension and improvement of Old Farrington Highway just beyond the Palailai interchange near the Hawaiian Adventures Water Park; and a new "Road D" off Farrington Highway east of Kamokila Park. A third outlet would connect Makaiwa with Makakilo, Kelly said.
There will be another elementary school and an 18-hole golf course. The project also includes the 47-acre Kapolei Commons shopping complex. Projected to open in March 2009, the open-air mall developed by The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group will contain 605,000 square feet of retail space, including one of Hawai'i's first two Target stores and a 31-screen movie theater complex.
There also will be a 12-acre transit center near Kapolei Commons along the extended Kapolei Parkway, which is expected to connect with Ko Olina.
About 3,800 permanent jobs are expected to be created in the new park. Rae said that this is likely the last major, untapped industrial park site on O'ahu. He said its proximity to Kalaeloa Harbor, directly to the west, will be a selling point for potential tenants.
Kapolei Harborside also will include a 12-acre natural park reserve.
Kelly said that the three projects also will include 800 acres of open space, 12 active parks, three major freeway interchanges and a 12-acre natural park reserve.
$2.2 BILLION PRICE TAG
While the major landowner in the region, Campbell and Kapolei Property Development traditionally have left the bulk of the actual building to state agencies and other development companies such as Castle & Cooke and Schuler Homes.
Rae said to expect similar partnerships with Makaiwa and Kapolei West while Kapolei Harborside will likely be divided up into smaller chunks and sold off.
Kapolei Property Development officials estimated the pricetag for the infrastructure, homes and other buildings at Makaiwa Hills at $2.2 billion, Kapolei West at $1.28 billion and Kapolei Harborside at $590 million.
The 6,500 homes in Makaiwa Hills and Kapolei West combined are just slightly more than the 6,300 homes either built or proposed for Makakilo.
The Villages of Kapolei, which is complete, consists of about 4,800 homes. East Kapolei, which is being developed by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and other state agencies, is expected to add 9,300 homes.
D.R. Horton Schuler Division's Mehana project, just to the west and south of Downtown Kapolei, has just begun construction and is expected to add about 1,150 homes. A senior living community known as Leihano Village, between Villages of Kapolei and Downtown Kapolei, is adding about 400 units and is being developed by Brookfield Homes and Kisco Senior Living.
In preliminary planning stages is Schuler's Ho'opili development, which would bring up to 12,000 homes on 1,600 acres of former sugar cane land between Kapolei and 'Ewa.
An application was recently submitted to the Land Use Commission.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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