Two Honolulu developers put a ceremonial shovel in the ground Thursday for ‘Olohana, a 247-unit affordable rental planned for the corner of Pi‘ikoi and Young streets in Makiki. The $150 million project is meant for households earning 30% to 60% of area median income. The building itself is still a Monday appointment.
Aloha State Daily reported that Tradewind Capital and Stanford Carr Development broke ground Nov. 12 at 1105 Pi‘ikoi Street. Financing closed Tuesday. The mix is expected to include studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom rentals, and construction is expected to take about 18 to 20 months. Stanford Carr's start date was more literal than the ceremony: fencing goes up Monday "and we start building."
A Hostel Lot and a Lease That Ran the Clock
Tradewind Capital, the investment arm of Tradewind Group, acquired the property in 2017, when it was the site of Plumeria Hostel. Chris Fong, vice president of development at Tradewind Capital, told Aloha State Daily the parcel was "encumbered with a ground lease until 2023." The lease ending, he said, was the chance to reimagine the site. Years of planning, design, financing and entitlement work sat between that date and Thursday. Nine years after the purchase, the next construction item on the calendar is still a fence.
Fong placed the lot in the urban core, outside the Ala Moana transit-oriented development neighborhood, and zoned for business and mixed-use residential. It is within walking distance of schools, grocery stores, retailers, restaurants and employers. The name is already doing neighborhood work. ‘Olohana is a Hawaiian transliteration of "all hands," and it was the Hawaiian name for John Young, an advisor to King Kamehameha I and the namesake of the Young Street the project fronts.
A First Joint Venture, and a Familiar Promise
‘Olohana is a partnership between the two local developers. Stanford Carr Development, a Honolulu firm founded in 1990, says it has developed more than 5,500 homes and apartments across O‘ahu, Maui and Hawai‘i Island. Carr called the groundbreaking a great milestone and said his firm's projects have come in ahead of schedule and under budget. Fong called the same event a major milestone and described the rentals as critical affordable housing for a dire need on O‘ahu.
Tradewind Group's résumé runs nearly a century in Hawai‘i, across insurance, real estate, technology services and private investment. The partnership is new. The site is not.
247 Homes in a Much Larger Gap
The 2024 Hawai‘i Housing Planning Study, published in 2025 by the Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corporation, estimated the state needs 64,490 additional housing units through 2027. More than 42,000 of those are for people earning 80% of area median income or less, Aloha State Daily reported. Fong said these 247 homes can contribute to that shortage.
If they lease as planned, they would serve a narrower band than that 80% figure: households at 30% to 60% of area median income. No rents by unit type, leasing timetable or opening date have been released. An 18- to 20-month construction window is not a move-in date.
Makiki Already Knows the Difference
Nearby affordable projects have not moved on one clock. Civil Beat reported in February that PenseMetro, a city-subsidized 29-unit rental in Makiki, took about four years to build after construction began in 2021. Nearly 10 months after a blessing marking its opening, nobody had moved in. The building was still waiting on final permitting sign-off.
Speed is not impossible on these blocks. Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that a completed 26-unit affordable rental at 1427 Ernest St., 24 studios and two one-bedrooms, went up in prefabricated concrete in nine months. Makiki Banyan, a 90-unit building with 80 one-bedrooms and 10 two-bedrooms, started construction in late March 2025, KHON reported. Rent there starts at $1,950 for individuals earning up to 80% of area median income, a higher ceiling than ‘Olohana's and not a published rent for this project.
Monday is the date the developers have put on the actual start. After that, the schedule they are willing to publish runs 18 to 20 months. In this neighborhood, a blessing and a finished shell have not been the same thing as a tenant with a key.
