The Honolulu City Council has given the green light to a proposed luxury tower at 1588 Ala Moana, located across the street from the Ala Moana Center.
However, members of the UNITE HERE Local 5 union, which represents healthcare and hotel workers, are calling for the development to have more affordable housing.
The project, dubbed “Park Lane 2,” plans to develop a new luxury hotel, condominiums, and only 69 affordable rental units — which the union said isn’t enough.
In addition, the union is calling on the developer, BlackSand Capital, to lower the rent.
To learn more, HPR spoke with UNITE HERE research analyst Ben Sadoski and Kaiser Permanente surgical technician Ray Bragado about why the union has gotten involved.
Interview Highlights
On why housing matters to the union
BEN SADOSKI: We feel like a lot of our members are priced out of the market. People are having a harder and harder time affording a place to live, and despite the fact that we, as a union, are always trying to negotiate for better wages and benefits, it's very difficult to keep up for our members if that money just keeps going out the door and ever increasing rents and mortgage rates. ...
If we only narrowly focus as a union on what we can win at the bargaining table … we're sort of missing the larger picture. And … we are a big part of the community. Our members are a big part of the community, and we want to work to help design a community that works better for everyone.
On the affordable rental units
RAY BRAGADO: Is it really affordable, even for the working class people? $2,300 for one month rent. People making minimum wage here, that's why they leave the state — because they couldn't afford the rent. A house right now is a million dollars, and then you’ve got to talk about the maintenance fee, and then parking. Those add up. Is it really affordable? I don't think so. If they can lower their price, you know, a lot of people's not gonna make this, and then they're gonna move to the mainland. … And we've got to look for our people here if they can still sustain living here.
On the City Council's decision
BRAGADO: I know a lot of people wanted this project to move forward because it's gonna be a moneymaker. But we're missing the bigger picture. We made sacrifices for that land, and then to get more rooms … I don't think it's a win for us. We're losing it. It's frustrating.
SADOSKI: The other thing I would say is that all of these projects, whether they're condos, hotels, timeshares, whatever, we have to recognize that they all have impacts on our community, right? They have impacts on the water, the wastewater, the electricity, the sewage. I mean, all kinds of things. The education system, the police and fire resources. All of that has to be accounted for somehow as well.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 20, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
