Crews have broken ground on a 440-acre affordable housing project in Waimea built on land donated by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne, with the first phase set to deliver 39 self-help homes to families willing to trade sweat equity for a lower price tag. The Hawaiʻi Island Community Development Corporation hosted a groundbreaking and blessing ceremony for the Koaiʻe Self Help Affordable Housing Project, marking a visible step forward after years of planning on land gifted by the tech billionaire couple.
Road and utility construction for the subdivision is estimated to cost $8.8 million, according to Big Island Now, with Ludwig Construction slated to begin that work in November. The infrastructure phase is expected to take nine months, laying the groundwork — literally — for homes that will eventually rise with access from Kawaihae Road via Waiula Drive, as Big Island Video News reported.
The self-help model at the center of the project asks eligible households to contribute physical labor toward building their own homes instead of making a standard down payment, the same report notes. It is a structure HICDC has leaned on for decades, and the nonprofit says it has developed more than 900 affordable housing units on Hawaiʻi Island over the past 30 years. The broader Koaiʻe project is expected to eventually include self-help housing, single-family homes for sale, and potentially low-rise multifamily housing, according to the same account.
Benioffs' Land Gift Anchors the Development
The 440 acres beneath the project trace back to a series of donations from Marc and Lynne Benioff, who gave 282 acres in 2023 and another 158 acres in 2024, per Big Island Now's reporting. The couple also gifted $7.5 million to HICDC for site planning and infrastructure development, along with an additional unrestricted $1 million gift, the outlet reported. West Hawaii Today confirmed that the development sits on land donated by the Salesforce CEO and his wife, a connection that has drawn statewide attention to a project otherwise rooted in local nonprofit housing work.
That attention was echoed by Pacific Business News, which reported that Marc Benioff, Lynne Benioff and Keith Kato all took part in the blessing ceremony held in Waimea. The outlet's reporting placed the ceremony on the calendar as a milestone moment for a project that had, until now, existed largely on paper and in land deeds.
A Track Record in Kailua-Kona
HICDC is not new to delivering large affordable projects on the island. West Hawaii Today pointed to the nonprofit's 100-unit family rental project in Kailua-Kona, completed in 2024, which the outlet reported is now fully occupied — evidence, supporters say, that demand for below-market housing on Hawaiʻi Island isn't going anywhere. The Koaiʻe project represents a larger undertaking by acreage, though the final scale of its housing output has not been detailed in current reporting.
The push comes against a backdrop of persistently brutal housing costs statewide. Hawaiʻi residents face the highest housing costs in the nation, according to the 2026 Hawaiʻi Housing Factbook from UHERO. Even so, Hawaiʻi County posted the lowest median rent among the state's counties in 2024, at $1,510, the same Factbook found — a relative bright spot that hasn't stopped prices from barely budging. Statewide median rent in 2024 sat just 0.1% above 2023 levels, while single-family home prices rose 1% statewide in 2025 and condo prices slipped 2%, per the Factbook's data.
Supply Barriers Still Loom Large
UHERO's researchers note that barriers to constructing new housing continue to limit the state's ability to expand supply, a structural challenge that makes land donations like the Benioffs' and labor-based programs like HICDC's self-help model more consequential than they might be elsewhere. For families willing to put in the work, the Waimea project offers a rare foothold in a market where ownership has grown increasingly out of reach. The nine-month road and utility buildout is just the first visible phase of a project years in the making, with Ludwig Construction's November start date serving as the next marker to watch.
