New homes and jobs coming to Kapolei
As Kapolei continues it's growth, an additional 3 new projects will add an additional 6,500 homes and over 7,000 jobs to the area. These represent some of the final pieces of the Kapolei Master plan, originally discussed in the mid 1950's, to develop a second urban area on Oahu. Or as is the common term for Kapolei, The second City.
There is an estimated economic impact of 66 Billion dollars over the next 12 years and the latest plans were presented at the Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board meeting this month. About a dozen people testified in support of the projects.
I like learning that the jobs created will exceed the homes built. To add another 6,500 homeowners in Kapolei to commute to Honolulu would fuel an already raging blaze of gridlock to H-1. Many of the residents who spoke at the meeting voiced similar opinions. It is comforting for me to know that there is a plan for the growth here and that an equal focus is being placed on the local economy and job creation.
The three projects are:
1. Makaiwa Hills, a 4,100-home residential development mauka of Farrington Highway from Honokai Hale and on the hill to the west of Makakilo.
Types of homes on the 1,781 acres will range from 1-acre lots near the top of the development to apartments and townhouses nearer to the freeway.
There also will be one elementary school and one middle school, as well as about 30 acres of commercial space. Sixty percent of the property will be left in open space.
Access into the neighborhood will be primarily through an extension and improvement of Old Farrington Highway just beyond the Palailai interchange near the Hawaiian Adventures Water Park; and a new "Road D" off Farrington Highway east of Kamokila Park. A third outlet would connect Makaiwa with Makakilo.
2. Kapolei West, consisting of 2,400 townhouse and apartment units on 516 acres between Ko Olina Resort and Downtown Kapolei. No single-family homes are envisioned. The project is considered, at least on its western side, an extension of Ko Olina's townhome development.
There will be another elementary school and an 18-hole golf course. The project also includes the 47-acre Kapolei Commons shopping complex. Projected to open in March 2009, the open-air mall developed by The MacNaughton Group and Kobayashi Group will contain 605,000 square feet of retail space, including one of Hawaii's first two Target stores and a 31-screen movie theater complex.
There also will be a 12-acre transit center near Kapolei Commons along the extended Kapolei Parkway, which is expected to connect with Ko Olina.
3. Kapolei Harborside, a 345-acre light industrial and business park. The type of businesses there will be similar to those that have moved into nearby Kapolei Business Park, which is about two-thirds the size of Kapolei Harborside. Also nearby is Campbell Industrial Park, which contains more heavy industrial uses and is about twice the size of Kapolei Harborside.
About 3,800 permanent jobs are expected to be created in the new park. This is likely the last major, untapped industrial park site on O'ahu. He said its proximity to Kalaeloa Harbor, directly to the west, will be a selling point for potential tenants.
Kapolei Harborside also will include a 12-acre natural park reserve.
The three projects also will include 800 acres of open space, 12 active parks, three major freeway interchanges and a 12-acre natural park reserve.
Kapolei Property Development officials estimated the price tag for the infrastructure, homes and other buildings at Makaiwa Hills at $2.2 billion, Kapolei West at $1.28 billion and Kapolei Harborside at $590 million.
The 6,500 homes in Makaiwa Hills and Kapolei West combined are just slightly more than the 6,300 homes either built or proposed for Makakilo.
The Villages of Kapolei, which is complete, consists of about 4,800 homes. East Kapolei, which is being developed by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and other state agencies, is expected to add 9,300 homes.
D.R. Horton Schuler Division's Mehana project, just to the west and south of Downtown Kapolei, has just begun construction and is expected to add about 1,150 homes. A senior living community known as Leihano Village, between Villages of Kapolei and Downtown Kapolei, is adding about 400 units and is being developed by Brookfield Homes and Kisco Senior Living.
In preliminary planning stages is Schuler's Ho'opili development, which would bring up to 12,000 homes on 1,600 acres of former sugar cane land between Kapolei and 'Ewa.
There is a difference in my opinion between planned development and unbridled growth. It's a wonderful place to live and growth will occur in one of the two ways no matter what. I'm so very glad that longterm thought has taken place and that there is a strategy in place for the growth planned and anticipated.
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