After years of debate and court battles, the master-planned community of Hoopili will break ground later this year. Pacific Business News Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier has a look ahead at what to expect.
Just west of Waipahu and Makai of the H-1 freeway, you’ll find the 1,600 acres of land that will become Ho’opili. Developer Dr. Horton-Schuler homes acquired the former sugar cane lands in 2006 from the James Campbell Estate. Opponents to Ho’opili has mounted legal challenges but a state supreme court decision in December gave the development the all-clear and we should see construction this summer.
Over the next 20-25 years, Ho’opili intends to deliver 11,750 housing units, three to four million square feet of commercial space, five new public schools, a tech park, 200 acres of active farm land and more.
30% of the home will be priced as affordable. Cameron Nekota, vice president of Dr. Horton-Schuler homes says that its 1st phase of 200 to 300 homes will range from $400,000 to $600,000. For comparison, the median price for a single-family home on Oahu as of February was $700,000.
Ho’opili is a big project, comparable to the start of Hawaii Kai in the 1950’s, or Mililani in the 1960’s. Building it is expected to create 27,000 construction jobs, and, and the finished Ho’opili is expected to offer 7,000 permanent jobs. It will make a sizeable dent in Oahu’s housing shortage but we’re still going a long way from a cure for that. Ho’opili’s nearly 12,000 homes represent less than half of the housing the state of Hawaii estimates Oahu needs over the next decade.
