Community Corner

50% Fee Increase in Kakaako

The new year brought a hefty increase in monthly maintenance fees for residents of Ward Villages’ Ke Kilohana. Eight months after the opening of the 425-unit tower developed by The Howard Hughes Corp., residents began receiving notice that the fees are going up by as much as 50%.

The board said the increase is necessary to offset operational costs that have been higher than anticipated.

Hughes’ prospectus for potential buyers says that “purchaser recognizes that and acknowledges that such common interests and maintenance fees are subject to change as the project evolves. Such estimates are not intended to be and do not constitute any representation or warranty by the developer.”

Common areas include a karaoke room, movie room, music room, a children’s playroom and barbecue area. Electricity use in these areas has been more costly than estimated, as were costs for staffing, security and maintenance. The result was an operating loss of $50,000 a month.

The board is considering ways to cut costs, including possibly eliminating air conditioning in hallways and asking resident volunteers to pitch in with landscaping maintenance.

In other condo news: Courtesy of JCliff Kimura/Flickr

Claiming to have invested at least $500,000 in two condo tower projects that broke ground a year ago in the Ala Moana area but have progressed no further, at least 28 foreign individuals have filed four separate lawsuits in Hawaii courts.

The projects are Hawaii City Plaza, which was to offer 184 condos in 27 stories (price range $457,000 to $11.2 million), and the Hawaii Ocean Plaza, 175 units in 40 stories ($718,000 to $2.2 million). Both are neighbors of the Walmart store on Keeaumoku. The developer is Johnson Fang. According to one suit, “complainants believe the undue delay was caused by inexperienced and incompetent management, and even worse, was caused by many dishonest management activities.” Fang’s local attorney David Squeri filed a motion to have the matter decided by arbitration in California, per terms of a clause in the projects’ investment contracts.

Central to the story is the U.S. government’s controversial “EB-5” program that gives foreigners a green card in exchange for investing in projects that help create jobs in economically challenged neighborhoods. The two projects qualified.

• Condominium sales on Oahu were up in January compared with January 2019. Sales volume rose 16.3%, from 326 to 379, while the median price was up 7.5%, from $399,000 to $420,000.

On Kauai, condo sales in January compared with the previous year were a mixed bag. Overall sales were down 29%, from 41 to 33, while the median price rose 33.2%, from $325,000 to $430,000.

Sales on the Big Island were similar, with sales volume down 29%, from 48 to 34, while the media price was up 25%, from $359,850 to $450,000.

And on Maui, sales volume dropped from 127 from 130, 2%, while the price rose 8%, from $740,000 to $782,438.

The median is the price point at which half of condos sold for more and half for less. Sources include the Honolulu Board of Realtors, Kauai Board of Realtors, Realtors Association of Maui and Hawaii Island Realtors.