Kalae Ward Village: The Smallest, Most Private Tower on the Front Row

Ka lae — the point, the headland — is the view south toward Diamond Head from 1000 Ala Moana Boulevard, and Kalae is the tower built to hold it. It is the tenth residential building in Ward Village and one of only a handful on the front row, wrapped by Victoria Ward Park Makai with Waiea and Victoria Place as its neighbors. What makes Kalae unusual in this neighborhood is scale: at 330 residences it is one of the smaller towers Howard Hughes has built here. Fewer homes, fewer elevators, fewer people on the amenity deck.

• 330 residences, 38 stories, 1 to 3 bedrooms
• Solomon Cordwell Buenz, NICOLEHOLLIS, VITA
• Four ground-floor Mālie Courtyards plus a Level 5 resort deck
• Front row beside Victoria Ward Park; under construction

Territorial-Era Hawai‘i, Translated to 38 Stories

Solomon Cordwell Buenz drew on early-twentieth-century Honolulu rather than international glass: stone screens, deep shade, patterned flooring, handcrafted tile, and courtyards that open to the trades. NICOLEHOLLIS designed the interiors and VITA the landscape. The result reads as a building that has been here a while — a difficult effect to design for and an expensive one to build.

The Mālie Courtyards

Where most towers give the street a lobby and a loading dock, Kalae gives it four Mālie Courtyards — semi-private indoor-outdoor rooms with adjacent bungalows, intended as reservable spaces for anything from a dinner to a graduation party. For a household that entertains, this may be the deciding amenity. Level 5 holds the resort deck: a resort pool and separate fitness pool, spa, great lawn and pavilion, owners' lounge, private dining room with catering kitchen, fitness and yoga studios, treatment rooms, saunas, guest suites, and barbecue cabanas.

The Residences

Kalae offers one-, two-, and three-bedroom homes — no studios, and a genuine one-bedroom as the entry point. Interiors feature floor-to-ceiling windows, wide-plank engineered oak, Studio Becker cabinetry, quartzite counters, an appliance garage, Sub-Zero refrigeration and wine refrigerator, and marble and limestone baths, in light or dark palettes. Corner residences hold the widest ocean and Diamond Head panoramas; select plans carry deep lānai. Every residence is market-priced.

Late in the Cycle, Choosing from What Remains

Kalae has been selling since late 2022, broke ground in January 2024, and is one of the more thoroughly pre-sold buildings in Ward Village. Anyone coming to it now is selecting from a limited number of developer residences plus occasional releases from cancelled contracts. Availability moves week to week, and we will tell you honestly whether what remains is worth the ask — or whether Melia, ‘Ilima, or a Victoria Place resale is the better buy.