In June 2002, then-Gov. Ben Cayetano signed a law that transferred responsibility for Kalaeloa from the Barbers Point Naval Air Station Redevelopment Commission to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, according to the HCDA website.
Thomas Lee, senior vice president of development, Hawaii Region, for Hunt Companies Hawaii, told Pacific Business News this summer that Hunt owns and manages more than 530 acres in Kalaeloa, including 238 acres which it owns fee simple and 292 acres still under a ground lease with the Navy. Approximately 25 years are left on a 40-year ground lease, whereby the fee title gets conveyed to Hunt at the end of the term.
History of Kalaeloa
According to a draft update of the HCDA’s Kalaeloa master plan, the area — known for two centuries as Barbers Point — was named for Henry Barber, captain of the Arthur, a ship that sank during a 1796 hurricane. Barber and other survivors washed up near Kalaeloa.
Nearly 70 years later, James Campbell acquired the land as part of a larger purchase of 41,000 acres of flat land in Ewa that was to be used in the cultivation of sugar cane, the plan noted.
The Navy leased 150 acres from the Campbell Estate in 1925 and began construction of Ewa Field a decade later. In 1940, the plan noted that the Navy purchased approximately 3,500 acres of land at Barbers Point, “allowing it to expand Ewa Field as the Marine Corps Air Station and to construct the [Naval Air Station Barbers Point].”
When Hunt took over its lands in 2007, there were about 12 tenants in 55 buildings, representatives of the company previously told PBN. The developer now has 70 tenants across 4 million square feet in 35 active buildings.
Hunt had invested roughly $260 million in Kalaeloa since 2007, Lee said in June.
New and ongoing development
The $130 million, 88,675-square-foot multi-speciality outpatient Daniel Kahikina Akaka VA Clinic sits on 9.5 acres of the Hunt’s Kalaeloa land, the developers previously said. Hunt owns the building and is leasing to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
During a June tour of the developer’s property, Steve Colón, president of development, Hawaii Region, for Hunt Companies Hawaii said “So for us, this is the beginning of the new development activity that we see happening. … Basically, it kick starts the overall development activity that we’ve been trying to get going for many, many years.”
On a parcel adjacent to the VA clinic, work is underway on Gentry Homes’ Kaulu Townhomes. Lee said in June that Hunt’s investment in off-site infrastructure enabled the development of the first 50 acres of its Kalaeloa property, 30 of which were sold to Gentry in 2021 for the construction of nearly 400 homes.
Colón told PBN in an October follow-up that entering the fourth quarter, Hunt “remains focused on the first upgrade of Kalaeloa Town’s roadways — a multi-year investment of some $40 million.”
“Sometime during this quarter — and as early as late October — the mauka portion of Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue will open,” he said. “Expansion of FDR to four lanes, from the previous two, between Copahee Avenue and Kamokila Boulevard, will provide greater regional traffic flow through this area, as well as to the new Daniel Kahikina Akaka VA Clinic and Kaulu by Gentry residential community.”
Colón said the investment into area roads is “vital as Hunt nurtures Kalaeloa Town into a thriving community for families.”
Kalaeloa Town encompasses just 15% of the whole Kalaeloa Community Development District, he said, but the biggest hurdle in housing development throughout Kalaeloa is infrastructure — including, but not limited to, the aged electrical grid.
“It will take hundreds of millions of dollars, so we need the government’s help,” he said. “We greatly look forward to long-awaited federal and state funding that has been committed to upgrade Kalaeloa’s electrical infrastructure [which is] critical to support the development of affordable housing for local families and the creation of more jobs in West Oahu.”