A longtime Oahu developer, a health-care worker and a state employee are planning to build a massive 850-unit campus-style retirement residence on 40 acres in Kapolei, just makai of the site of an intended assisted living facility that never broke ground. Retirement campus
set for KapoleiBy Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.com
Kenneth D.H. Chong, who spent 26 years developing Hawaii Kai with Kaiser Development Co., has joined husband-and-wife team Nancy Schoocraft and James L. Schoocraft on the potentially 1.1 million-square-foot project, to be called Luana Koa.
The company has reached an agreement to lease the land from owner Campbell Estate, which is one step before an actual lease, said Campbell spokeswoman Theresia McMurdo.
The property is next door to Kapolei Regional Park.
The group, working as real estate firm Hawaii Village Associates Inc., has applied with the city to change the land's zoning to business mixed-use from agriculture. The next step is getting a building permit, and the company hopes to break ground in a year and a half, said John Whalen, a planning consultant with Honolulu firm Plan Pacific, which is working on the zone change application.
Hawaii Village Associates would develop the project incrementally, based on sales, and the first 50 units could be completed by 2004, said Whalen.
The plan calls for two phases, with 350 units in the first and 500 in the second.
The idea is to offer a full range of elder-care facilities, from independent living to assisted living to skilled nursing units and Alzheimer group residences.
"It's like an insurance program, in a sense," Whalen said.
Residents buy a contract to live in the community, not the actual real estate, and can move around in the facility when they need advanced amounts of care.
Entry fees will range from $195,000 to $495,000, depending on the size of the individual unit, while monthly fees for services such as housekeeping, dining and maintenance will fall between $1,500 and $2,500, Whalen said.
If a resident leaves or dies, the full amount of the entry fee is refunded, Whalen said. The concept comes from mainland developer John Erickson, who has built a slew of retirement communities in the Northeast since 1983.
The preliminary design for the Kapolei project calls for a group of townhouse-style garden apartments, with basic amenities such as a post office, hair salon and sundry store. An overall cost for the project was not available.
The facility would eventually be owned by a nonprofit entity, which would contract with an outside operator, Whalen said.
On Oahu, senior-living residences include the Arcadia Retirement Residence, the Hawaii Kai Retirement Community, Pohai Nani in Kaneohe and the Ponds at Punaluu.
Once completed, Luana Koa would be the largest elder-care residence in West Oahu, joining the 45,000-square-foot skilled nursing facility Ka Punawai Ola in Kapolei.
A planned $15 million assisted living facility announced in 1999 by local developer Sheldon Zane, to be called the Manor at Kapolei Green, never broke ground.
Chong and the Schoocrafts could not be reached for comment. Nancy Schoocraft, a trained nurse who has also worked in real estate, had taken an interest in geriatric care, Whalen said. James Schoocraft works for the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation in the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Materials on the zone change application are available from the city at 650 S. King St. or at Kapolei Mobile Satellite City Hall.
Comments will be accepted through May 9.
