There's a new tower on North School Street in Kalihi, and it's built for kūpuna. Hoʻohiki Senior Living, a 15-story building with 250 apartments for seniors 55 and older, celebrated its grand opening on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi was among the leaders at the ceremony, Hawaii News Now reported. Gov. Josh Green, Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority Executive Director Hakim Ouansafi and Highridge Costa Development Co. President Moe Mohanna were also there, according to Aloha State Daily.
The building sits at 1002 North School Street. Of the 250 apartments, 249 are affordable rentals for seniors 55 and older in households earning no more than 60% of the area median income. The last is a manager's unit.
The unit mix leans heavily toward small homes:
- 32 studios with one bath.
- 208 one-bedroom homes with one bath.
- 10 two-bedroom homes with two baths, one of which is the manager's unit.
That means more than four out of five apartments in the building are one-bedrooms, so the crews that built it were repeating the same compact kitchen and bath layout floor after floor.
Income limits depend on household size. Aloha State Daily described the building as set to "soon welcome" seniors, so move-ins are still ahead.
The Hawaiʻi Public Housing Authority partnered with developer Highridge Costa on the project. The name Hoʻohiki means pledge or oath, and officials said it was chosen to reflect the development team's commitment to caring for Hawaiʻi's kūpuna.
For a building this size, the parking garage is a project of its own. The property has 247 parking stalls in all: 204 residential stalls, 10 ADA stalls, 25 visitor stalls, five EV charging stalls and three on-grade stalls. There are also 90 bicycle stalls.
On top of the parking structure is an outdoor recreation deck with walking paths, barbecue areas, resident gardens and a stage for community events. Inside, residents get an exercise room, classrooms, an arts and crafts room, a multipurpose room with a kitchen, a media room, a lending library and a computer lab.
How seniors can apply
The housing lottery is open through Oct. 31, according to Hawaii News Now, and the drawing is scheduled for Nov. 10. Applications that come in after Oct. 31 may be added to the waitlist. More information is on the community's website, hoohikiseniorliving.com.
Hoʻohiki rises on land at the housing authority's School Street headquarters. When the authority broke ground on this first tower, Ouansafi said the site would eventually provide many more homes for seniors. "Once completed, this sacred land will provide an additional 800 units for senior citizens, ensuring affordable housing for a lifetime," he said at the time, in a statement posted by the authority.
The authority noted at the time that the School Street site had long been a place where people in need came looking for available housing. In that same groundbreaking announcement, the housing authority thanked development partners Highridge Costa Development Company, Form Partners and Hawaiian Dredging.
Highridge Costa is a name worth knowing around Honolulu these days. The same company is the developer on the Mayor Wright Homes redevelopment nearby, where a 10-tower, 2,450-unit plan is just getting started.
A look from the job site
A 15-story residential tower with a parking structure and a usable deck on top is serious work. Turning the roof of a parking structure into gardens, walking paths and a stage means waterproofing, drainage, landscaping and hardscape all have to work together.
Senior housing also puts accessibility front and center, from the 10 ADA parking stalls to the layouts inside the units. And 250 apartments, most of them studios and one-bedrooms, means a lot of kitchens and bathrooms in a compact footprint.
Why it matters for Contractors
Hoʻohiki is a good example of the kind of mid-rise and high-rise affordable housing that's going up in Honolulu: towers with structured parking, amenity decks and a long list of interior rooms. That kind of building keeps concrete crews, waterproofing subs, elevator installers, MEP trades, drywall and paint crews, flooring and cabinet installers busy for a long stretch. With the housing authority talking about more senior units on the School Street site and Highridge Costa also working on Mayor Wright Homes, contractors who want affordable housing work on Oʻahu should get to know both. Experience with senior housing and accessibility requirements will help you stand out.