The 324-residence community in Wailuku includes 195 homes reserved for affordable “workforce housing,” offered to applicants by lottery five months ago
Legacy Partners, a privately held national real estate firm, and AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust, announced the opening of Kaulana Mahina Apartments, a 324-residence community in the Central Maui community of Wailuku, Hawai’i.
Designed as “workforce housing,” 195 of the apartment homes were reserved for households earning more than 50 percent and up to 140 percent of the area median income. Demand far outstripped supply for the rental apartments offered to lucky applicants back in Nov. 2023 via lottery. The remaining 129 homes began leasing this winter with monthly rental rates starting at $3,413. Move-ins began in December and the last building is expected to be finished by June 14.
“We are proud to bring the first affordable workforce project of significant size to Maui in more than 34 years,” said Kerry Nicholson, senior managing director, Legacy Partners. “Maui’s housing crisis will not be solved overnight, but it’s a good feeling to be able to contribute a small piece to the solution. We hope that many will raise their hands to help remove some of the impediments which have resulted in so few housing units being built each year.”
“Kaulana Mahina Apartments will provide crucial, affordable workforce housing for essential workers, such as teachers, first responders, healthcare professionals, and service industry employees who are critical in supporting our local economy and everyday community needs,” said Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen. “This project provides much anticipated relief through a daunting housing crisis and will provide 324 new rentals for local residents.”
Located at 10 Piha Poepoe Way, Kaulana Mahina’s 324 homes includes studios and one- to three-bedroom units ranging in size from 769 to 947 square feet. The professionally managed project has many amenities for its residents—a gym, pool, yoga room, resident lounge, lawn area for a playground, and dog park—all included in the monthly rent.
Following section 2.96 of the Maui County Code, the development is 60 percent affordable and is a 201H affordable housing project. The developer is BIT Wailuku LLC, comprised of BIT Investment One Hundred, LLC, managing member Legacy Partners, Pacific Coast Capital Partners, Dowling Company, Pier Investments, and Schatz Collaborative LLC. The construction and design team is Moss & Associates, Ethos Architecture, Warren S. Unemori Engineering, Inc., and Group Pacific.The property manager is Greystar. The project is collaboration with the County of Maui, the Mayor’s Office, and Maui County Council, as well as Hawai‘i Housing Finance Development Corporation.
According to Nicholson, the development sent a message that investing in community and supporting local families is vital to Hawai‘i’s well being and marks the first major investment of AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust in Hawai‘i in affordable workforce housing. The fund, a commingled fund of more than 250 union pension plans, invests in commercial real estate nationwide. In Hawaiʻi, AFL-CIO members include the Hawaiʻi Government Employee Association (HGEA), Hawaiʻi’s largest public-sector labor union, and all the Hawai‘i building and construction trades, numbering in the hundreds of thousands of workers.
Kaulana Mahina Apartments (Courtesy of Legacy Partners)
For more information aboutKaulana Mahina Apartments, visit Kaulanamahinaapts.com
About Legacy Partners
Legacy Partners (Legacy), a privately held real estate firm founded in 1968 and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, owns, develops, and manages multifamily communities throughout the United States. Since its inception, the company has developed or acquired more than 80,000 apartment homes at more than $8.5 billion in cost.Legacy has regional offices in California, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington, and has developed more than 68,000 apartment homes in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. Since inception, Legacy has worked with some of the world’s largest financial institutions, life insurance companies, and real estate companies, consistently delivering exceptional results.Legacy provides management services for its own portfolio, as well as other owners. Combined, Legacy manages a portfolio of more than 50 multifamily communities with almost 12,000 apartment homes, and with a gross value in excess of $3 billion. For further information, please visit www.legacypartners.com
About AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (“AFL-CIO”) Building Investment Trust (the “BIT”) is a bank collective trust fund. The concept for the BIT was originally conceived by the AFL-CIO as a prudent means of allowing pension and retirement plans with union member beneficiaries to participate in a professionally managed portfolio of real estate investments. Qualified pension and retirement plans with union member beneficiaries invest in the fund, which in turn invests in real estate investments located in the United States. Its primary objective is to generate competitive risk-adjusted returns through real estate investments that have the potential to offer current cash return, long-term capital appreciation, or both. Its collateral objective is to benefit the BIT’s investments by promoting positive labor relations and labor productivity while also creating union jobs and assuring organizational rights to employees.
