Update of Anaha - 1108 Auahi Ave

The Howard Hughes Corporation has announced that sales for the Anaha condominium would begin in January 2014.  Anaha, which means reflection of light in Hawaiian, is located at 1108 Auahi Avenue.  The building will feature a total of 311 units including 238 tower residences and 73 town homes and flats. Layouts include studios, one, two and three bedroom units.  There will be 9 foot high ceilings throughout all of the residences.

While an official price sheet has not been provided for Anaha, it was announced that the average dollar per sq ft would be between $1,100 and $1,200.  The monthly maintenance fee would be approximately $1.10 per sq ft.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 12-16-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
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Update from Howard Hughes Company on Kakaako Condominiums

Under the Howard Hughes Corporation master-plan, a total of 4,000 residential units and 1 million sq ft of new retail and commercial space will be added to the Kakaako neighborhood in the next 15 years.  The first phase will be the building of three new condominium towers in the Ward Village area.  These towers are tentatively called 1140 Ala Moana Blvd, 1108 Auahi Street and 404 Ward Avenue and are ultra-luxury, luxury, and moderate income respectively.  Sales for these towers should begin in December 2013.

Chief Executive Officer for the Howard Hughes Corporation, David Weinreb, stated, "We certainly think it is a great time to be doing this. It's almost impossible to determine how long a market cycle will last but we certainly think at this point we are in the early innings of a robust and reasonably long-term period that you can see demand.  From extrapolating what One Ala Moana sold for using an average price of about $1,200 a square foot you can come up with a number that is certainly a big number. But will it be that number? It could be less or more. It's hard to say, but we're hopeful that demand will be robust. And we do think there is a market for people wanting to live in this kind of community."

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 10-3-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
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Hughes Corp. Given Approval to Build First Three Towers in Kakaako

The Howard Hughes Corp has been given approval by the Hawaii Community Development Authority to build its first three high-rise towers in Kakaako. The HCDA had previously approved a tower located at 404 Ward Avenue, which will feature 424 moderately price units. Towers #2 and #3 will be at 1140 Ala Moana Blvd and 1108 Auahi Street respectively.  1140 Ala Moana Blvd (tentative name) will be a luxury condominium with a total of 177 units in the main tower and 10 townhouses facing Ala Moana Blvd.  1108 Auahi Street (tentative name) will have 312 units in the main tower, and 82 flats and townhouses in low-rise buildings.  All three towers are projected to begin sales by the end of this year.  Construction is expected to begin early 2014 and the towers are expected to be completed in 2016.

According to their master plan, the Hughes Corp has the rights to build 22 towers over the next 15 years. Hughes Corp has stated that in a future phase of the development, they may build three more towers on the block currently occupied by the Ward Warehouse.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 8-22-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
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Update on 1108 Auahi Street and 1140 Ala Moana Blvd Towers

The Howard Hughes Corporation has submitted their request to the Hawaii Community Development Authority to build two additional towers at 1108 Auahi Street and at 1140 Ala Moana Blvd.  The tower that is going to be built at 1108 Auahi Street, where the Pier 1 Imports building is currently located, will feature a total of 318 units. The tower that will be built at 1140 Ala Moana Blvd will only have 177 units but this tower will be considered an luxury property with direct ocean views overlooking Ala Moana Beach Park.  This second tower will be built on the parking lot across the street on the ocean side from the Ward theater complex.

The Hughes Corp is requesting a couple of minor variances from the HCDA.  For 1108 Auahi Street, the request is to build the parking garage a total of 75 feet high, a total of 10 feet higher then the 65 foot limit currently in place.  As for 1140 Ala Moana Blvd, Hughes Corp is requesting that the building be built only 30 feet away from Kamakee Street, as opposed to the 75 foot setback that is required.  Their parking garage will also be slightly higher, with one part reaching 77 feet high.  The Hawaii Community Development Authority will allow the public to comment on August 3 and on August.  They will then meet on August 21, 2013 to vote on the requests made by the Hughes Corporation

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 7-23-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
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404 Ward Avenue Building Given Approval

In a 6-0 vote, the Hawaii Community Development Authority has given the Howard Hughes Corporation approval to build a moderate-priced condominium tower at 404 Ward Avenue.  This building, which has no official name yet, will have a total of 424 units.  Under its master plan, the Hughes Corp. would be required to make 20% of its 4,300 planned Kakaako residential units moderately priced. This means that only residents who earn between 100 percent to 140 percent of the median income for Honolulu county would be able to purchase those units. The 404 Ward Avenue property would satisfy approximately half of that requirement.  Howard Hughes senior vice president in Hawaii, David Striph, stated, "We are obviously very happy with the decision."

The Hughes Corp requested and was granted several variances for this project.  The first was a request to build the 404 Ward Avenue tower only 120 feet away from Kauhale Kakaako, an affordable rental building.  Zoning requirements previously required 300 feet in between the broad sides of a tower.  The second request was that the parking garage height would be raised to 75 feet to help create a smaller footprint of the building and to better accommodate ground-floor retail stores.  The Hawaii Community Development Authority has agreed to these items, provided that the Hughes Corp. includes a landscaped screen fronting the parking garage.

The Howard Hughes Corp has two additional towers being proposed to the Hawaii Community Development Authority at this time. One of them will be located on the site of the current Pier 1 Imports store at 1108 Auahi Street.  This building would have an estimated 318 units.  The second will be located at 1140 Ala Moana, across from the Ward movie theaters.  This building would have 177 units and will be marketed as an ultra-luxury building with spectacular, direct ocean views.  The HDCA will hold additional public hearings for these two project and will vote on their approval on August 21, 2013

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 7-18-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, REALTOR®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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Economists Believe that Demand Will Be There for All the New Condominiums

A total of 5,000 new condominium units and 1,000 rental units have been planned to be developed in Oahu’s urban core over the next decade. While some people are questioning if there will be enough demand for these new buildings, many local economists and real estate experts believe that the increased supply won’t even be noticed. Paul Brewbaker, the chief economist of TZ Economics, commented, “It’s not a question of will there be enough buyers. The problem is, will there be enough condos?”

Below is a list of the planned buildings:

Waihonua, located on Queen Street, is being developed by Alexander & Baldwin Inc. Currently 321 of their 341 units have been sold. The building is scheduled to be completed in March 2015.

One Ala Moana, is located above the Nordstrom parking garage at the Ala Moana Center. The 210 units have been sold out. The MacNaughton Group and the Kobayashi Group are the local developers in partnership with the Howard Hughes Corp.

801 South Street was marketed as moderately priced building. All 635 units have been sold through a lottery drawing. At that time 300 lottery entrants did not secure a unit. Marshall Hung is the developer of this building.

Symphony Honolulu is located on the North West corner of Ward Avenue and Kapiolani Boulevard. Sales are expected to begin this summer.

404 Ward Avenue is the address of a new moderately priced condominium tower that the Howard Hughes Corporation will be building. Prices have not been specified as of yet. Sales are expected to begin this year. The building will have approximately 400 units.

1108 Auahi Street is the address of a new mid-luxury condominium tower that the Howard Hughes Corporation will be building. Prices have not been specified as of yet. Sales are expected to begin this year. The building will have approximately 300 units.

1140 Ala Moana is the address of a new luxury condominium tower that the Howard Hughes Corporation will be building. Prices have not been specified as of yet. Sales are expected to begin this year. The building will have approximately 200 units.

The Collection is a project being done by Alexander & Baldwin. Located at the site of the former CompUSA store on the corner of South Street and Ala Moana Blvd, the project will include 466 units including several townhouses. Sales are expect to begin later this summer.

803 Waimanu is a project being developed by Franco Mola and will be located on Waimanu Street near Cooke Street. The project will feature 217 units. Sales are expect to begin later this summer.

Aloha Kai is a planned project on Atkinson Drive on the property that is currently being occupied by the Central YMCA property. The developer is still seeking a city zoning change. The building would have 128 units.

Halekauwila Place is a rental project with 204 units being developed by Standord Carr.

690 Pohukaina is also a rental project with 804 units. The project is being planned by Ohio-based Forest City Enterprises Inc.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 6-3-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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Howard Hughes Corporation Announces Three More Condominiums in Kakaako Neighborhood

The Howard Hughes Corporation has announced that they will be building three new condominium towers in Kakaako, a total of 900 units, at the same time. According to the company’s master plan, this will be part of the first phase of a total 22 towers that we be built over the next 15 years in Kakaako. The Howard Hughes Corp. is planning on spending a total of $7.5 billion to build a total of up to 22 towers with up to 4,300 residential units on the 60-acre parcel. The company also plans to double the amount of retail space in the neighborhood and add additional restaurants and entertainment options. Senior vice president in Hawaii for the Howard Hughes Corp., David Striph, stated, “The pent-up demand, we think, is great.”

Tower 1 will be located on Ward Avenue between Halekauwila and Ilaniwai streets. This building will be moderately priced and have approximately 415 units. Tower 2 will be located directly across on the ocean side of the Ward theater complex. This building would have unobstructed views of Ala Moana Beach Park and Kewalo Basin and will have have approximately 200 units. Tower 2 will be the most luxurious of these three towers. Finally, Tower 3 will be built where the Pier 1 Imports store is currently located. This tower will have about 300 units and will be priced somewhere in between Tower 1 and Tower 2.

Provided that the Hawaii Community Development Authority, the state agency overseeing the development of Kakaako, gives the necessary approvals, the there new towers will break ground in 2014 and be completed approximately 2 years later in 2016.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 5-22-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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Howard Hughes Corporation to Announce Three New Residential High Rises in Kakaako

The Howard Hughes Corporation will be announcing shortly plans to build three new residential high-rise condominiums in Kakaako. Hughes Corp owns approximately 60-acres of land in the Ward Centers area in Kakaako. They have just recently applied for building permits from the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which is the state agency regulating development in the area. The Hughes Corp has an approved master plan which allows their company to build up to 4,300 residential units over the next 15 years. According to past press release, the master plan includes building 22 high-rise towers and doubling the existing retail, dining and entertainment venues that currently exist at the Ward Centers. It is estimated that it would cost the Hughes Corp approximately $7.5 billion to complete this massive undertaking.

Tentatively, it appears that these three towers will be located on the parking lot on the ocean side directly across from the Ward theater complex, on the site where the Pier 1 Imports currently occupies, and on an area on Ward Avenue currently occupied by the Kanpai Bar and Grill.

Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 5-21-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
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