top of page

NEWS ARTICLES

Hawaii’s plan to develop leasehold homes advances

Star Advertiser

Andrew Gomes

February 4, 2025

Senators Mentioned:

Senator Stanley Chang

An unconventional state initiative to build more homes for Hawaii residents with moderate incomes is approaching a critical test to see whether homebuyers want high-rise condominiums with 99-year land leases.


A more than $200 million tower is envisioned in Honolulu with 360 units and leasehold prices ranging from $456,400 for units with one bedroom and one bathroom to $862,600 for units with four bedrooms and two bathrooms.


The Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency pursuing the plan at the direction of Hawaii’s Legislature under a law enacted in 2023, is seeking a $30 million appropriation from lawmakers over the next two fiscal years to help pay for the ambitious project.


However, it’s not yet clear whether enough interest from prospective buyers exists, or if enough funding for the envisioned tower can be arranged.


“If there is buyer demand, we still see assembling financing for the project as a hurdle,” Craig Nakamoto, HCDA executive director, said in an email. “If there is buyer demand and if financing can be assembled, we see the pilot project as a new model for developing affordable housing for local people, that can be replicated.”


The idea for the state to develop and sell leasehold condos on state land was initially proposed as legislation in 2019 by Sen. Stanley Chang (D, Hawaii Kai-­Kahala-Diamond Head) based on a model used by the government in Singapore to provide lifetime housing for residents at affordable prices.


As envisioned for Hawaii, such housing would come at no long-term cost to the state because revenue from unit sales would fully repay development expenses as a “revenue neutral” investment. At the end of a tower’s 99-year lease, during which condo buyers would pay for all upkeep, the state would take ownership of the entire property.


To carry out the plan, the Legislature in 2023 passed Senate Bill 865, which became Act 97 and appropriated $1.5 million to HCDA for preliminary work.


The agency hosted focus sessions with developers, economists, lenders and real estate brokers in 2024. Then HCDA sought bids from developers to take on the project, and selected Ko Laila LLC, a company whose principals in 2024 completed a mainly midpriced 328-unit condo tower in Kakaako called Ililani.


Ko Laila, led by Henry and Kenneth Chang, is expected to finish preliminary design, cost and site evaluation work for a leasehold condo tower this summer. Then the company intends to solicit nonbinding purchase reservations to gauge interest from prospective buyers.


To qualify, prospective buyers would have to meet certain requirements under Act 97 that include not earning more than 140% of Honolulu’s median income. This limit equates to about $156,000 for a couple and $195,000 for a family of four.


Nakamoto said HCDA also aims to make units affordable to households earning the median income, which equates to about $111,000 for a couple and $139,000 for a family of four.


In 2024 on Oahu the median sale price for single- family homes was $1.1 mil­lion, a point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less. For condos the figure was $515,000.


Leasehold condos have been developed in Hawaii previously on private land. Most of these units produced decades ago were converted to fee-simple ownership, though some still exist today.


A 2021 study ordered by the Legislature and updated in 2022 concluded that buyer demand would likely be high for leasehold condos with two bedrooms and two bathrooms priced at $400,000. The study by the Hawaii Budget and Policy Center of the nonprofit Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law &Economic Justice said a comparable fee- simple unit built by a private developer would cost $600,000.


Part of the difference is attributable to financing costs and profit for a private developer, as well as the cost of land.


Yet the land cost for individual unit owners in a high-rise can be relatively small.


For instance, the city for property tax purposes values the land in a one- bedroom and one-bath unit in the 423-unit Ke Kilohana tower, which opened in Kakaako in 2019, at $20,200, compared with $543,700 for the unit itself and other shared interest in the building. This unit is currently listed for sale at $560,000.


A site for HCDA’s envisioned leasehold condo tower has not yet been decided. Nakamoto said potential sites exist in Kakaako and along the city’s Skyline rail route.


If sufficient interest from buyers is received for the envisioned tower, HCDA and Ko Laila would still have to arrange financing.


Nakamoto said an initial analysis indicated that the project may not be able to attract private financing to pay for construction, so HCDA and Ko Laila are exploring other options including state funding for the more than $200 million project.


“If there isn’t sufficient buyer interest or if the means of financing the development is not available, the pre-development will conclude and no further work on the development will be conducted,” Nakamoto said.

The Sunshine Blog: How Much Is A Governor Worth? A Mayor? A Judge?

Civil Beat

The Sunshine Blog

February 4, 2025

Senators Mentioned:

Senator Karl Rhoads
Senator Angus McKelvey
Senator Ron Kouchi
Senator Stanley Chang

Political sticker shock: Gov. Josh Green is squirming a bit at the much-publicized proposal floated by the state salary commission a couple weeks ago that would boost his salary by more than 61% over the next six years.


He’d be OK with a 35% to 40% pay hike over his current $189,480 annual wage, his chief of staff, Brooke Wilson, told the commission last week.


“Just to cut straight to it — and you know at the end of the day you guys are going to decide, OK? — but his feedback was that he felt more comfortable with a 35% to maximum 40% increase over six years for he and the lieutenant governor,” Wilson said.


Commissioners noted Green’s current salary is less than what the Honolulu mayor makes, which they suggested is inappropriate given Green’s expansive statewide responsibilities. Mayor Rick Blangiardi got a raise last year that boosted his pay to $217,392.


But Wilson told the salary commission that Green doesn’t think he needs to be paid more than the mayor. After all, he has a car, a driver and housing at Washington Place, perks the mayor doesn’t have.


Green, according to Wilson, thinks judges should get a “great increase” in their salaries because competition from the private sector is making it more difficult to attract candidates for judicial appointments.


Still, the commission seems intent on a pretty hefty ramping up of the pay scales for the governor and other state officials — including legislators — despite plenty of public outrage that has followed since The Blog and others reported that whopping increases were on the table.


On Monday commissioners mapped out a tentative schedule for the governor that includes a 32% raise effective July 1, followed by 4% raises for each of the following five years. That still works out to a total of 52%, or nearly 61% over the six years when compounding of the annual raises is taken into account.


Bottom line: The governor’s pay would be $304,301 in 2031. That’s actually a year after Green would be termed out of office if he’s reelected in 2026.


The commission is charged with recommending pay increases for the next six years for the governor, the lieutenant governor, state department heads and deputies, Hawai’i judges, and the Legislature.


Commission members plan to vote on the package of pay raises at their next meeting on Monday. The raises will automatically take effect unless the state House and Senate both vote to reject them in an all-or-nothing deal.


The sun is shining brightly so far: Last week was the Legislature’s first full week of committee hearings and The Blog could hardly keep up with all the sunshine bills that went whizzing through, thanks to the snappy pace set by The Sunshine Boys.


That’s the title our cartoonist Will Caron recently gave to Judiciary chairs Sen. Karl Rhoads and Rep. David Tarnas. The Blog would add Senate Government Operations chair Angus McKelvey to that crew; he’s pulled quite a few accountability bills to his hearing calendar, too.


It’s early yet and of course conference committee is where everything will die, but many of the key reform measures are getting some actual love from lawmakers: more restrictions on contractor and grantee political donations, more money for partial public financing of campaigns, more requirements for lobbyists’ disclosure.


Bill packages requested by the state Ethics Commission, Elections Commission and Campaign Spending Commission — including prohibiting contributions to state elected officials while they’re in session and funding for more investigators — are being heard and largely approved, at least by one chamber or the other.


Even a couple of constitutional amendments that would ultimately need to go to the ballot for approval by voters are getting a legislative thumb’s up (so far): increasing the mandatory retirement age for judges to 75, fixing an issue with blank votes and overvotes in Hawaiʻi’s elections, and an end run around Citizens United by declaring that in Hawaiʻi free speech shouldn’t necessarily mean huge campaign contributions.


Coming up this week, lawmakers are scheduled to take up more bills related to the public financing of campaigns and a serious effort by Rep. Tarnas to curb one aspect of pay-to-play politics by better tracking contractors and grantees who are getting state funding and restricting the money they have been funneling to elected officials. (That’s at 2 p.m. Wednesday in House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.)


Lawmakers also seem interested in changing the law regarding asset forfeiture to make sure authorities only seize property in criminal cases where someone has been actually convicted, and convicted of a felony. Bills making it clear that the public has the right to record law enforcement officers also are moving forward.


The House Republican caucus’s Stand Your Ground proposal has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.


Bipartisan proposals to ban or restrict cell phone use in schools seem to be going nowhere. The same for bills that would require more voter centers, especially on Oʻahu, to help alleviate long lines for voters who choose to vote in person on Election Day.


The Blog could go on and on about some of the other interesting proposals we’re tracking here. But the Legislature’s website is pretty easy to navigate for bills and hearings and it also has easy links to live video streams or recorded hearings.


We’ll do our best to keep you updated on the issues we’re following. There’s about a month to go til crossover, when bills must be approved in at least one chamber and they cross over to the other one.


Session stretch: A couple of the bills getting some attention this year entertain the notion of putting lawmakers to work year-round — not necessarily every day but spreading the legislative session throughout the year to give policymakers more time to do their jobs in an increasingly complex world.


Count Senate Judiciary chair Karl Rhoads as a loyal skeptic on this one.


He’s giving some air to Senate President Ron Kouchi’s version of a proposal by House Speaker Nadine Nakamura to create a task force to study how the session could be extended over 12 months (now it’s 60 session days spread over about four months). Senate Bill 1514 gets a hearing Friday at 9:25 a.m. before the Senate Judiciary Committee.


Nakamura’s House Bill 1425 is set to go Wednesday at 2 p.m. before the House Legislative Management Committee.


“It’s not clear to me that there’s any stomach for extending the session either in the building or amongst voters,” Rhoads told The Blog on Monday.


Rhoads made quick work of another proposal for a 12-month Legislature on Friday when he unilaterally deferred Senate Bill 733, which sought to put the question directly to the voters via a constitutional amendment. His Judiciary Committee colleague, Sen. Stanley Chang, was the lead sponsor on that one, along with a few other senators.


Chang has frequently pushed for an extended legislative session, and has called the current setup “four months of chaos.”


Of course being in charge comes with some privileges. Referring to the Nakamura/Kouchi push for a task force to study the issue, Rhoads said, “since it’s a leadership bill, I think that’s the one that will move if any do.”


Gordon Ito out at DCCA: Rumors have been swirling for some time that former House Speaker Scott Saiki is favored by Gov. Josh Green to be Hawaiʻi’s insurance commissioner. In fact, Saiki now has a job at the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Insurance Division, but not the top spot. Yet.


On Monday, the agency announced that Gordon Ito is retiring from the insurance division after 31 years including 10 total as commissioner. Jerry Bump, who joined the division in 2008, has been named acting director.


Standing up to Trump and Musk: Meanwhile, 5,000 miles away across the continent — and the ocean — Hawaiʻi’s senior senator vowed to place a “blanket hold” on all of Trump’s nominees to the U.S. State Department until the attempt to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development is reversed.


Just last week Sen. Brian Schatz was named ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs.


And today … there he was on the steps of the agency with a handful of other Democratic senators and reps promising to put up a fight to keep the Trump administration from dismantling a vital lifeline from the U.S. to other countries.


“Dismantling USAID is illegal and makes us less safe,” Schatz said. “USAID was created by federal law and is funded by Congress. Donald Trump and Elon Musk can’t just wish it away with a stroke of a pen — they need to pass a law.”


Schatz called the Trump-Musk move “brazenly authoritarian” and “a self-inflicted chaos of epic proportions that will have dangerous consequences all around the world.”


Over the weekend, staffers from the new Department of Government Efficiency took possession of classified information held by the agency and then refused to allow employees in the building on Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported.


A single senator can hold up nominations under the Senate rules.

Bill would ban immigration detention centers on state land

Star Advertiser

Dan Nakaso

February 4, 2025

Senators Mentioned:

Senator Henry Aquino

Immigration detention centers would be banned on state and county lands, and other bills in the Legislature also would ensure due process for any detainees.


The bills have drawn both condemnation and support as Senate and House members consider public testimony.


The bills are moving through the state Legislature as federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents continue to enforce President Donald Trump’s promise to sweep up illegal immigrants, many of whom have committed no violent offenses, and deport them.


During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly said unspecified numbers of illegal immigrants had committed murders and were members of violent drug cartels.


Trump also has threatened to eliminate “birthright citizenship” for American-born children of immigrants, a right that’s enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.


Gov. Josh Green has repeatedly told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he will not deploy Hawaii National Guard troops to the mainland to assist in rounding up illegal immigrants, especially if it means separating them from their families.


House Bill 73 would prohibit the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and Board of Land and Natural Resources from allowing state land to be used for immigration detention facilities while also forbidding state and county agencies from “contracting with the federal government or processing any permit for this purpose.”


HB 73 unanimously passed out of the House Committee on Economic Development and Technology.


HB 438 and its Senate companion bill, Senate Bill 816, would create a “Due Process in Immigration Proceedings Program in the state Judiciary to provide legal representation to individuals in immigration-related proceedings in immigration court.”


HB 457 also would require state and local law enforcement agencies “to notify an individual of their rights when in law enforcement agency custody before any interview with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement on certain matters regarding immigration violations.”


HB 22 would limit state and county law enforcement agencies’ ability to collaborate with the federal government for immigration purposes.


The bill received support from, among others, the office of the Kauai County Prosecuting Attorney, which wrote, “As the smallest of the State’s County law enforcement team, our Office does not have the resources to spare to enforce civil immigration detainers. In addition, we share concerns about due process violations in enforcement of these orders.”


House Bill 73, which would prohibit detention centers on state and county land, has been opposed by individuals and a group called Hawaii Island Republican Women.


The bill has been referred to the House Economic Development and Technology, Water and Land, and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs committees. No hearings have been scheduled yet on HB 73.


Support for the ban on immigration detention facilities has come from individuals, organizations and agencies such as the state Office of Public Defender; immigration and civil rights groups; Catholic Charities Hawaii; Honolulu Council member Matt Weyer, who represents the North Shore and parts of Central Oahu; Hawaii County Council member Jennifer Kagiwada; and unions like Hawaii’s largest — the Government Employees Association — and Unite Here Local 5 that represents thousands of employees of Filipino descent working in Hawaii’s hotel, food service and health care industries.


“Many of our union members are immigrants or children of immigrants, they are the working-class families, friends and neighbors that make up the fabric of our Hawaii communities,” the union wrote in testimony supporting the House bills.


“We support HB22 as it clarifies how Hawaii will treat non-judicial warrants. … (There) are legitimate concerns about the constitutionality of civil immigration detainers, as opposed to criminal warrants issued by a judge with probable cause.”


But Jamie Detwiler, president of Hawaiian Island Republican Women, wrote in opposition to banning detention centers on state and county land:


“If the Federal government provides funding to build Federal detention facilities and procures the land lawfully, a federal detention center should be built. We need to support the efforts of our President Trump and his administration in their pursuit of making America safe again.”


Andrew Crossland wrote in his testimony in opposition, “I STRONGLY OPPOSE any Bill in which the State would attempt to defy the deportation efforts of the federal government to enforce our immigration laws. We need to take care of legal citizens and residents in Hawaii first, not illegal aliens who are criminals by definition.”


In her testimony, Sharee Orr wrote, “Illegal aliens are illegal. They did not follow immigration process therefore should not be afforded any help by the state to keep them from being returned to where they came. They eventually become burden to the taxpayer.”


Noela von Wiegandt opposed HB 73 in her written testimony because “we don’t have enough housing to house the legal citizens who live here and to house our Veterans and homeless. I do not want my tax dollars spent on any facilities to house illegals on our public land. Just deport them and they can apply the legal way to live in the United States.”


State Sen. Henry Aquino (D, Pearl City-Waipahu-West Loch) chairs the Senate Labor and Technology Committee and helped introduced SB 816, which would create the “Due Process in Immigration Proceedings Program.”


Aquino wrote in a text to the Honolulu Star- Advertiser that he introduced it “in response to growing concerns from the immigration community and civil rights groups specifically.”


“Currently there’s very few resources that help folks navigate the complex legal processes surrounding immigration-related actions,” Aquino said.


Tuia‘ana Scanlan — president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 665 union, which represents entertainment workers — cited the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans and the first generation of Japanese immigrants following the Japanese navy’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.


In the anti-Japanese hysteria that followed, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of America’s most progressive Democratic presidents, issued an executive order requiring the U.S. military to round up and force both Japanese- and U.S.-born Japanese Americans into internment camps across the U.S. West, including a much smaller one on Oahu called Honouliuli.


Congress eventually apologized and paid surviving internees $20,000 each, for a total of $1.6 billion.


Honouliuli has since been designated a National Historic Site.


“If history teaches us anything, it is that racially motivated support for the construction of detention centers is wrong,” Scanlan wrote in support of HB 73. “We need only remind ourselves of the Japanese internment camps. … It is a slippery slope to allow for the creation of internment camps. It is a deplorable mechanism used to rob contributing members of society of their possessions and their dignity.”

bottom of page