This rendering shows the land conveyance site plan for Hale Makua’s master plan, which includes workforce housing and community improvements. This image was included by Hale Makua as part of a public presentation before the Maui County Council. Courtesy photo

Major aspects of a master plan by Hale Makua that has been in the works for nearly a decade got a strong vote of confidence Tuesday.

By a resolution, a Maui County Council committee recommended preliminary approval for conveying public land for a 100-unit workforce rental housing project by Hale Makua Health Services in partnership with Alakaʻi Development.

The 34-acre parcel includes workforce housing and the Kōkua Pool and Kahului Community Center, which would be excluded from the housing development and retained by the county for public use and recreation through a subdivision of the property.

Hale Makua Executive Director Wesley Lo said he sees the ambitious and evolving plan as a collaborative and incremental process.

The goal is to utilize the parcel primarily for workforce housing and community improvement and stewardship.

“We need to improve our health care, our care for the kupuna and to provide housing for health care staff and others in need,” Lo said. “If we don’t improve housing for the community and healthcare workers, entry level workers will leave. We need to find a way to keep them, and the goal is to provide health care for our community.”

The conveyance and eventual development of the land was considered a priority project by the Maui Economic Recovery Commission in 2024.

Lo said plans for the revitalization and expansion of Hale Makua’s aging campus in Wailuku and Kahului began during the administration of Mayor Alan Arakawa in 2016.

Lo, who took the helm of Hale Makua in 2017, said it was not financially feasible to rehabilitate existing facilities that were at least 80 years old.

“We were looking to expand and present a plan that would provide for the needs of the community,” he said.

In 2018, a resolution authorized a grant lease for 2.8 acres and 4.57 acres, which is currently the Kahaului Community Center.

Lo said when the organization was looking at the two smaller parcels when Arakawa said, “Why don’t you take the whole 34 acres?”

“Great,” thought Lo at the time, “but how do we pay for it?”

Lo said Hale Maku began looking for nonprofit partners and eventually secured a $5 million grant from an unnamed philanthropic organization and is planning to apply for financing through the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corp.’s Dwelling Unit Revolving Fund, according Hale Makua’s master plan.

Lo said Maui has the largest deficit of physicians in the state, so additional medical practitioners are needed here, calling the need “vital to the survival of our community.”

Lo said all the mayors he has worked with have been supportive.

According to information in Lo’s presentation to the council, in addition to workforce housing, Hale Makua plans to develop a 56-bed rehabilitation “careplex” center in partnership with Hawaii Medical Service Association on 2.8 acres of nearby land to continue to improve health care on Maui.

The principals hope to break ground by 2027.

Funding will come through grant requests and money contributed by Hale Makua, HMSA and philanthropic organizations, Lo said.

The current project plans call for 74 two-bedroom units and 26 one-bedroom units. The workforce housing rental units would cost no more than 30% of a resident’s household income for monthly rent and utilities.

Lo said the development of the housing project will depend on the environmental assessment, but assuming that process takes one year, the first homes could be up within 2.5 years.

Lo said he was not sure when the project would get full council approval but, “there will be other discussions with the county council once we determine actual property lines to discuss the conveyance of the property for this project. I suspect this will be a few more months away, as we are still doing design and engineering work.”