Religious institutions in Hawaiʻi have collectively made nearly $200 million in just four real estate deals so far this year. That's expanded a wide footprint of church-owned real estate throughout the islands.
The biggest real estate transaction by a Hawaiʻi religious institution in 2025 was at the start of the year. That's when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu sold the land beneath Kāhala Nui to the senior living facility itself for $90 million.
Meanwhile, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints paid a total of $80 million for two separate land purchases on Maui and Oʻahu. Grace Bible Church Pearlside rounded out the year with its purchase of the land beneath its church in ʻAiea for about $26 million.
The Catholic Diocese's deal to sell the land beneath Kāhala Nui closed in January, marking one of Hawaiʻi's first major real estate transactions of the year and the largest non-hotel real estate deal this year.
The $80 million that the LDS church spent on its Maui and Oʻahu properties marks one of the largest expenditures on Hawaiʻi real estate by a single buyer this year.
$60 million of that was spent to acquire the former Kamehameha Drive-In and Kam Swap Meet site near Pearlridge Center on Oʻahu, which has been vacant for years. That was Hawaiʻi's fifth-largest commercial sale this year.
The 46-acre Kahului property that the LDS church acquired for $20 million marks that Maui's largest commercial sale this year.
A spokesperson for the LDS church declined to comment on what the plans are for those two vacant parcels. However, the church has previously announced plans to build new temples on Maui and Oʻahu.
