Kauai Real Estate Update- What Sold, went Under Contract and was Just Listed last week on the island of Kauai? Click here to find out; Kauai Real Estate Update July 14 to 20, 2025
Poipu Beach Real Estate Update- Things are starting to get really busy here in Poipu with Koloa Plantation days starting, to see a schedule of evets click HERE. For the latest on Fee Simple property in Poipu since the beginning of the year click here; Poipu Beach Current Market Analysis
For the Kiahuna Plantation click here; Kiahuna Plantation Current Market Analysis
Affordable Housing In Lihue Breaks Ground
While in Lihue I stopped by the site of a new apartment complex that is going up on Rice Street. This used to be an older commercial building that had a Central Pacific Bank in it and was recently demolished (Central Pacific Bank moved to the Safeway Lihue shopping center).
Located on the corner of Rice and Umi Street the “Rice Street Apartments” will be 4 stories high, the first floor will be for commercial and retail and the next three stories affordable apartments.
There will be 66 two-bedroom units for families that are earning 60% or less of the area’s median income and the monthly rent will be $1,000 a month. The first floor will be able to accommodate up to 10 businesses.
Kauai’s affordable housing shortage is one of our biggest problems in having a reliable workforce. We have a lot of jobs available but the pay does not keep pace with our housing prices. The monthly rent for a Rice Street Apartment is much more manageable.
The project is made possible by a $10.8 million dollar loan from Hawaii’s Rental housing Revolving fund, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, a $500K grant from the County Housing Development Fund, permit fee waivers in the amount of $888,000, conventional financing and Riverbend Management who are developing this project contributing $1.9 Million.
Kauai North Shore 5 Year Lawsuit Ends In Residents Favor
Five years ago some Kauai North Shore residents filed a lawsuit against Starwood who had plans to build luxury homes on the Makai Golf Course in Princeville. Starwood Capital Group is the owner of the “1 Hotel Hanalei Bay” hotel and they had plans to build luxury homes on the Makai Golf Course. That lawsuit ended last week in the favor of the property owners in Princeville.
It's a golf course so how can they build on this? This is where it gets interesting; a very old “55 Year-Old Non-Development” plan was found for the golf course dedication that protects the golf course from being developed. That document expires on February 28, 2026 and the Starwood Capital Group was going to start building homes. Local residents were surprised about this document, were very much opposed to the development and quickly started taking action by way of a lawsuit.
The residents took two paths towards stopping this lawsuit. The first being that the development would go against the Princeville’s community CC&R’s which allows for this “Non-Development” to be automatically extended every 5 years unless 75% of the owners in Princeville vote otherwise and, residents were not going to be voting “otherwise”. The second was the discovery that the remains of hundreds of cattle that died during an anthrax outbreak over 100 years ago are buried on the Makai Golf Course, the concern was what could be released into the atmosphere once the digging starts. To this point it was stated in the judgement that “the harm will be irreparable.”
For 7 years a couple on the island of Molokai had a vision to bring their one and only theater to life. Permitting, construction, COVID and upgrades to the sewer system were just some of the hurdles. Rob Stephenson is a real estate agent with Hawaii Life on the island of Molokai and he sold the theater to Brad and Grace and wrote a wonderful article about their journey that is a fun read.
Connection is the heartbeat of this endeavor, the couple wanted to create something that would bring the community together which makes this place more than a movie house. The Mango Theater has a Newsletter, you can book it for private events and the movies are first rate!
To read more on how this theatre came back to life, and for a link to the theater itself, click here; Mango Theater Molokai
Kauai’s Buses Now Zero Emission
Kauai has added to their fleet several all-electric buses with zero emissions. There are a total of 12 diesel buses on Kauai, Maui and the Big Island that have been replaced with these electric buses.
It’s estimated that the nitrogen oxides emissions for each bus will be reduced by 1.445 tons. The Federal Transit Administration gave $11.2 million towards the buses which cost a total of $16.6 million. Hawai’i State Energy Office contributed $3.53 million with the remaining paid by each of the counties.
