Kalae Ward Village

Kalae is the tenth residential tower in Howard Hughes’ 60-acre Ward Village master plan, and one of only a handful to hold a front-row parcel — the makai side of Ala Moana Boulevard, with nothing tall between the building and the water. It sits on the Diamond Head side of Ward Avenue, wrapped by Victoria Ward Park Makai, with Waiea and Victoria Place as its neighbors on the row and The Launiu diagonally across the intersection.

What makes Kalae unusual in this neighborhood is its scale. At 330 residences it is one of the smaller towers in Ward Village, and materially smaller than most of the buildings around it. Fewer homes, fewer elevators, fewer people on the amenity deck. If the appeal of a Ward Village address for you is the neighborhood rather than the building lobby, Kalae is the one that behaves least like a large condominium.

Architecturally it is also the quietest of the front-row buildings. Solomon Cordwell Buenz drew on Hawai‘i’s territorial-era architecture rather than the sheer glass of Waiea — stone screens, deep shade, patterned flooring, handcrafted tile, and courtyards that open to the trades. It reads as a building that has been here a while, which is a difficult effect to design for and an expensive one to build.

Every residence is market-priced. There is no reserved housing component at Kalae and no income qualification, which makes this a simpler transaction than several other Kaka‘ako offerings.

Kalae at a Glance

Architecture & Design

Solomon Cordwell Buenz designed the tower, NICOLEHOLLIS the interiors, and VITA the landscape. The reference points are local and historical rather than international: the geometric screens, patterned stone floors and shaded courtyards of early-twentieth-century Honolulu, translated to a 38-story building without becoming pastiche.

The clearest expression of that idea is at the base. 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, handcrafted tile and shutters, opening onto green space. It is a ground floor designed to be occupied rather than passed through, and it is the detail most likely to change how the building actually feels to live in.

The Residences

Kalae offers one-, two- and three-bedroom homes. There are no studios here, and the entry point is a genuine one-bedroom rather than a compact one — a narrower range than most Ward Village towers, and a deliberate one.

Orientation does the heavy lifting on value. The corner residences hold the widest ocean and Diamond Head panoramas and have historically been the first to go. Homes on the east face look toward Diamond Head; homes on the mauka side take the city and Ko‘olau view. Some plans carry deep lānai, others Juliet balconies — a distinction worth resolving before you pick a stack.

Floor plans, square footages and finish schedules are established by the developer and are subject to change until stated in the Developer’s Public Report and your executed purchase contract. Ask us for the current plan set and the square footage attached to any specific residence.

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The Amenity Program

Kalae splits its amenities across two levels, and the ground floor is the more interesting of the two. Level 5 holds the resort deck; Level 1 holds the courtyards that give the building its character.

The Mālie Courtyards

Four courtyards sit at grade with green space and adjacent bungalows, intended as reservable rooms for anything from a dinner to a graduation party. It is a genuinely different answer to the ground floor than the rest of the neighborhood offers, and for a building where entertaining matters it may be the deciding amenity.

Amenity programming, room names and level assignments are drawn from the developer’s published plans and remain subject to change through design and construction. Confirm the final program in the project documents before it factors into your decision.

Kalae & The Launiu

These two are the live front-row decision right now. They face each other across Ward Avenue, share a developer, and are both under construction. They are not, however, the same offering, and buyers regularly tour one when they wanted the other.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

The short version: Kalae is smaller, further along in construction, and has no entry-level product — you are buying privacy and a ground floor unlike anything else in the neighborhood. The Launiu is larger, broke ground later, and offers a studio-through-three-bedroom range with undulating terraces facing Diamond Head from the gateway corner. Different buildings for different buyers. Current availability and pricing for both is something we will pull for you rather than guess at.

See The Launiu Ward Village →

The Site

Kalae occupies the block bounded by Ward Avenue, Auahi Street, Victoria Ward Park Makai and Ala Moana Boulevard, with the residential entrance off Auahi. The park frontage matters: it is what protects the outlook on the park side and what puts open green space at the door rather than three blocks away.

Ward Village remains under active development, with several towers still to be delivered. Construction activity in the surrounding blocks — including The Launiu, ‘Ilima and Melia — will continue through the buildout of the master plan.

Sales & Availability

Kalae has been selling since late 2022 and absorbed quickly — it is one of the more thoroughly pre-sold buildings in Ward Village. That is good news for anyone worried about a project stalling, and it means anyone coming to it now is choosing from what remains rather than from a full inventory.

• Late 2022 — Pre-sales launched. The initial release sold through quickly, followed by the release of the owner-occupant designated residences.
• January 2024 — Official groundbreaking.
• Currently — Under construction, with a limited number of developer residences remaining plus occasional releases from cancelled contracts.

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Acquiring a Residence

Buying late in a nearly sold-out building is a different exercise from buying at launch. There is less to choose from, less room to negotiate on plan selection, and more reason to scrutinize whether the specific home still available is the one you actually want. The points below are the ones that most reward attention.

• The Developer’s Public Report — the document that governs the sale. It sets out unit descriptions, common and limited common elements, the association budget, use restrictions, and the developer’s reserved rights. Read it before you write, not after.
• Thirty-day cancellation right — Hawai‘i condominium law affords 30 days from delivery of the developer’s report and project documents to cancel, with the deposit refunded less escrow cancellation costs up to $250.
• Thirty-day arbitration election — separately, you generally have 30 days from the date of the sales agreement to elect out of its arbitration provisions and class action waiver. Both bind if the window passes.
• Deposit structure — Ward Village pre-sales use staged deposits held in escrow across the construction period. On a building this far along the schedule is compressed — understand what is due, when, and at what point it stops being refundable.
• Financing position — Ward Village pre-sale contracts are typically written without a financing contingency, and your loan will be underwritten near delivery rather than today. Confirm the terms of your specific agreement.
• Owner-occupant designation — Hawai‘i law requires developers to designate at least half of a project’s residential units for sale to prospective owner-occupants before general sales open. A designated residence carries a notarized affidavit, a 365-day principal residence requirement, and civil and criminal penalties for violation. Whether any residence still available remains subject to designation must be confirmed with the developer before you write.
• Use and leasing — minimum lease terms and any registration provisions are established by the declaration and house rules. Short-term and vacation rental use is prohibited across Ward Village. If rental income is part of your plan, raise it before you reserve.
• Carrying costs — maintenance fees at delivery are developer estimates and tend to increase over time. Property tax classification in Honolulu turns on how you occupy the home, and a second home is not taxed like a primary residence. Both belong in your model before you commit.
• Resale context — in a 330-unit building, a handful of simultaneous resales is a meaningful share of supply. Worth understanding if you may sell within a few years of delivery.
• Delivery — your orientation walkthrough precedes closing. Understand your remedies if completion does not occur by the outside date stated in your sales agreement — particularly on a project whose timeline has already shifted.

Project Details

Arrange a Private Consultation

We will provide current availability and pricing, the Developer’s Public Report, the full carrying-cost picture, and a considered comparison of Kalae against The Launiu, ‘Ilima, Melia and the Victoria Place resale market. Please connect with us before your first visit to the sales gallery.

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