Current law bans residential housing on the ocean side of Ala Moana Boulevard. The state transferred the Kakaʻako Makai land to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs years ago as a land base.
For the past several years OHA has tried unsuccessfully to get the zoning changed to allow it to build high-rise towers as part of a development called Hakuone. Last year the state budgeted money for repairs to the aging harbor, but lawmakers wouldn’t budge on lifting the ban on residential development.
HPR talked to OHA Board Chair Kai Kahele about the department's top priority of getting the green light to develop its lands on the makai side of Ala Moana. The former U.S. representative was recently elected as OHA's Hawaiʻi Island trustee. He last joined us on The Conversation when he was running for governor in 2022.
Interview Highlights
On OHA's plan for developing affordable workplace housing at Kakaʻako Makai
KAI KAHELE: I think we have a different vision and a different plan that seems to have, up until this point, been pretty well received from different legislators and people we've spoken to. We had a great community meeting at Kupu last week. About over 200 people attended, and it was something that people framed as unprecedented that OHA had never done that in the past — come to the community before the start of the legislative session, provided the bill, provided their vision, specific details, all centered around OHA's desire to be part of a whole of government approach to address the state's most pressing need — which is housing, specifically affordable workplace housing. So that is what our bill does and it does a couple really important things. It will ask the Legislature to repeal the 2006 residential prohibition that was put in place by the Legislature, coming up on almost 20 years ago, and it will then ask to raise the height limit along Ala Moana Boulevard for OHA's parcels that it would like to develop workforce housing. It does something really unique that I don't think has been done before. It statutorily requires all residential housing built along the Ala Moana Boulevard corridor to be dedicated to affordable housing. So it mandates 50% plus one unit be dedicated to affordable — affordable meaning 140% of the area median income, as set by the Housing Urban Development and HHFDC for the island of Oʻahu, 140% AMI or below. It also statutorily requires that all residential housing in Kakaʻako Makai will be dedicated to owner-occupants. That's never been done before. It's clearly not being done across the street. So the message OHA wants people to remember and understand is that we want to build affordable housing and workforce housing for local families, local individuals, local families, not out-of-state investors, not second-time homebuyers. These are for people that desperately need housing. And that's the nexus of our plan.
On the background of the 2006 residential prohibition for Kakaʻako Makai
KAHELE: The HCDA (Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority), which governs the Kakaʻako larger area, was created in 1976 and Kakaʻako was designated its first urban development area. Kakaʻako Makai was added in 1982 and over the course of the next 20 or 30 years, residential versus not having residential has shifted at different times. In 2006, the HCDA had approved the plan by Alexander & Baldwin to develop and sell the properties in Kakaʻako Makai and develop three very large story towers to develop residential housing. And that wasn't palatable for the community, and it wasn't palatable for the Legislature, and so they put in a residential prohibition then. We are not Alexander & Baldwin. We are the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. We want to develop this area for workforce housing. We need to impact this area with people so that the commercial, the mixed-use, the open promenade, all of those things come to life. You need people for an area to come to life. And that's what we want to do. And OHA will provide housing for Native Hawaiians and non-native Hawaiians. And so I think it's a win-win for all of us.

On redefining Hawaiʻi's essential workforce and providing housing
KAHELE: Something that the bill also does, which is really unique, is it statutorily expands and defines what the state's essential workforce is. These are the critical jobs that our local families and local individuals are employed by. That really we need to make this state run — law enforcement, teachers, health care professionals, health care workers, the hospitality industry, our civil service, our construction industry. And so if you work in a 5-mile nautical radius of Kakaʻako Makai and you fall into one of those six essential workforce categories, you will have a preference to get a workforce housing unit which will be a one-, two- or three-bedroom condo type unit — meaning when it's time to bid and do a lottery on the building, one of those six essential preferences will have more tickets at the lottery. So you have a higher probability of actually getting a unit. And then if you happen to be a Native Hawaiian that qualifies and gets a unit, that's when OHA can come in, provide you financial literacy assistance, down payment assistance. We own the land, so we can potentially monetize the land to guarantee that loan for a qualified applicant. There's a lot of ways that we can help our Native Hawaiian beneficiaries to qualify for one of these one-, two- or three-bedroom workforce affordable housing condos.
On if OHA is unsuccessful in securing new rules for Kakaʻako Makai
KAHELE: I think if OHA is unsuccessful this legislative session, then I think we really need to look in the mirror and decide what we're going to do with these Kakaʻako Makai lands. In all honesty, I think it would be very unfortunate, because I think OHA is the best state entity to bring to fruition what everyone wants — which is a beautiful, developed Kakaʻako Makai that preserves the open ocean promenade as a great place for ocean recreation, bring people together, have a place that we can have a Native Hawaiian cultural center that honors the Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi. If it's not OHA, then who is it? Because it's not going to be HCDA. They don't have half a billion dollars to put into Kakaʻako Makai. It's not going to be the state. So I really think OHA is the best agency that can bring everyone together, bring this to fruition. But if it's unsuccessful, then OHA may need to reevaluate the Kakaʻako Makai lands and look at another strategy. But there is no doubt that we need residential development to fund all the other good things that everybody else wants. The money has to come from somewhere, and it comes from market sales, the 49% in those buildings that can help us fund all the other things that everyone wants — without that, we can't bring let's say elements of the 2011 Kakaʻako Makai master plan that the community widely supported. We can't bring that to fruition without residential.
On the other bills that OHA will be presenting to the Legislature
KAHELE: We have our budget bill, and so that's typically, we ask about $3 million from the state Legislature and we match those funds as well. We're the only state agency that asks for money and matches it, one for one with whatever the state Legislature gives us. So that's one. Another bill that's really important for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is our Public Land Trust Bill. The PLT and the amount that state agencies that lease public trust lands that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs by the Hawaiʻi State Constitution is entitled to a pro-rata share of it. Legislature set 20%, is the pro rata share in 1981 — it's been a fight ever since OHA was created to fight for what OHA was entitled to. And those revenues that we derive from public trust lands, we use for beneficiaries, we use for community grants, we use it for sponsorships. We use it to help pay for Pūnana Leo kids to go to school, pay for kids to go to college.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Jan. 13, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.