A conceptual sketch of Hale Kamiano, which will be adjacent to the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, Finance Factors and the Residences at Bishop Place. (Illustration courtesy Design Partners Incorporated)
Catholic Charities Housing Development Corp planning affordable senior housing next to downtown cathedral
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Plans are in place for a new affordable housing development for seniors next to the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu.
The 17-story building, called Hale Kamiano, will have 67 total units and is a collaboration between the Diocese of Honolulu and Catholic Charities Hawaii’s Housing Development Corporation.
CCHDC is taking the lead on the project and working with Avalon as a development consultant, which will not only offer affordable senior citizen apartments but also have the second and third floors for the Diocese of Honolulu’s offices currently located at the nearby 1184 Bishop Street chancery building.
Moving from the existing chancery would be the bishop’s office, the diocesan finance office, the office of clergy, the Hawaii Catholic Herald and other offices. Some offices from St. Stephen Diocesan Center on the Pali Highway will also move there.
Hale Kamiano tenants will have to be over 62 and earn 60% or less of the individual average median income. Rental units will all be 440-square-foot one-bedrooms with a bathroom and basic kitchen. Rental rates will vary by income and range from $664-1399. The affordability period is locked in for 61 years.
A diocesan gathering space will be on the first floor, and the building will also have a case manager’s office and a live-in resident manager.
While there will be no parking, there will be bike racks, and the building’s central location in downtown Honolulu should make walking or taking public transportation easier for residents, said CCHDC’s asset manager Connie Yu-Pampalone and its president, Mike Magaoay, in discussing the project with the Hawaii Catholic Herald.
The high-rise has an estimated $45 million price tag and will be built on the current spot of the Cathedral Basilica’s Kamiano Center at 1155 and 1159 Fort Street Mall.
That two-unit structure dates to the early 1900s and is “now beyond its physical and economic life,” said Marlene De Costa, the diocese’s real estate director, in a 2021 email discussing redevelopment potential for the Kamiano Center.
The plans for the project received approval from the Downtown-Chinatown Neighborhood Board and the city council. The project now must wait until June 2024 to see if it receives a low-income housing tax credit from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation.
In the meantime, CCHDC expects its plans will be finalized by the end of the year and then they will start the permitting process with the city, Magaoay said.
At present, 1155 and 1159 Fort Street Mall are not being used because of building conditions. (HCH Photo | Anna Weaver )
Turning the former church space into affordable housing was Bishop Larry Silva’s idea.
“It’s his baby,” according to Magaoay who says the bishop first proposed an affordable housing complex about three to five years ago.
Magaoay said CCHDC wants to make sure Hale Kamiano can be used as a positive example of how to add more affordable housing to the downtown area.
“We just want to make sure it’s done properly because it’s in downtown, it’s where everybody can see it,” he said.
After chancery offices have been relocated to Hale Kamiano, the diocese plans to convert the 1184 Bishop Street property into accommodations for retired priests. The three upper floors of the building are already living quarters and communal space for a small number of priests that work at the cathedral and for the chancery. Cathedral office space would remain on the first and second floors where they are now.
The buildings that make up the current Kamiano Center were originally owned and used by the Sacred Hearts Sisters in the early 1900s as their convent and school. Their property used to reach from the cathedral down to near Hotel Street. The sisters eventually relocated their school and convent to the present Sacred Hearts Academy site in Kaimuki and a Nuuanu campus, which was later sold.
The Sacred Hearts sisters ultimately sold their Fort Street buildings, which were then used for retail and office space over the years, housing such retailers as Ritz Store and Kim Chow Shoes. In 2007 and 2009, the Diocese of Honolulu bought back the two remaining buildings next to the cathedral to be used for church and diocesan activities and called the space the Kamiano (Hawaiian for Damien) Center.
However, due to building issues, it has been closed to the public for a few years and is boarded up. In 2021, St. Louis students painted a colorful mural on the plywood barrier in front that is dedicated to Father Damien.
While CCHDC has worked on a number of other housing developments, this is its first high-rise project.
