The Launiu, Ward Village
928 Ward Avenue
The Launiu will be the next Howard Hughes project coming to the luxury master-plan neighborhood, Ward Village. The address for the project is 928 Ala Moana blvd. in land block 5 at the corner of Ala Moana boulevard and Ward Avenue. This project was just announced at the Ala Moana - Kakaako neighborhood meeting so it is still very very early, this project has not been permitted yet and sales are likely many months away from starting.
Launiu will have 486 new residences in the building, this is including 90 homes in the podium. The podium will wrap around the parking structure of the building on the Ward ave and Ala Moana blvd side of the project. There will be studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom residences available in the building. No affordable housing units will be available in this project.
Developer: Howard Hughes Corp
Architect: Arquitectonica
Landscape Architect: VITA
Interior Design: ODADA
Maintenance Fee: TBD
Video Overview w/ Holden Lau
On the ground floor you can expect just over 21,000 sqft of commerical space which includes retail, and other establishments of that nature along with a dedicated 17,500 sqft restaurant space. There will be 16,000 sqft of open green space with meandering sidewalks and a lot of new landscaping providing shaded walkways.
Launiu is located on the first row, but it isn't quite consiudered an oceanfront parcel. I think because of this, we won't see a level of finish close to Kalae and Victoria Place and should expect something similar to Koula and The Park Ward Village.
Amenities
The amenity deck at The Launiu is located on the 7th floor of the building. below will be 5 levels of parking on top of a ground floor residential lobby. Residents will have over 78,000 sqft of indoor/outdoor recreation space. No detailed plans of the amenity deck at Launiu have been released yet, though from preliminary drawings we can see a large pool, bbq cabanas, kid's pool, jacuzzis, fitness studio, and much more. One thing that I found interesting on the plans was an area on the amenity level called "hydrotherapy spa". I'm not exactly sure what that is, but if it makes it into the final product, it'll be a first for Ward Village.
Guest suites, which is a popular amenity, especially during the holidays, will also be available at The Launiu. These suites will be located in the podium and by the looks of the plans, they will be studio units. These guest suites are available on a nightly basis to the guests of residents. Prices range from $150 - $200 a night.
The Launiu Site Plan
Below you'll find the ground floor site plan for The Launiu. You can see there will be a large porte cochere which will make the pick-up and drop-off at The Launiu feel luxurious and grand. Residents will not have to go through this area to access the residential parking with a separate entrance located at the entrance to the porte cochere just off Auahi st. There will be a separate entrance further down Auahi St for commercial parking and loading.
Floor Plan (Tower)
Below you'll find the floor plan for the building. Like I mentioned before, these are very early drawings that are more for conceptual purposes so there is not detailed drawings of each floor plan. What we can see from the drawings are the rough sizes and number of bedrooms. Howard Hughes is sticking with putting a 3-bedroom floor plan in that prime corner location featuring the best views of the ocean and Diamond Head. They've now went with this on every single market rate building except Aalii which doesn't feature any 3-bedroom floor plan in the entire building.
There's a second 3-bedroom floor plan on the east facing side with three 2-bedroom floor plans. There are no one-bedroom floor plans on the east facing side with 4 one-bedroom options on the west (sunset) side of the project. There will be two studio floor plans on the west facing side as well. On the ocean/sunset corner of the building you'll have a two-bedroom floor plan which be really nice.
Floor Plan (Podium)
Below is the floor plan for the podium units at The Launiu. This similar design is used in many other projects in Ward Village and can also be seen across Kakaako. Developer's add units to the podium to both improve the exterior aesthetic of the project and to add lower priced, lower floor units to the projects.
The floor plan for the podium is largely made up of studio units with 1 one-bedroom option and 2 two-bedroom floor plan options. There will also be guest suites available to residents and their guests with those guest suites located in the podium.
Will there be reserved housing / affordable housing at The Launiu?
No. Howard Hughes has laready satisifed the their 20% required reserved housing units for Launiu with the 697 reserved housing units available in Ulana Ward Village.
Can you Airbnb or use the unit for short-term rentals?
No. In Honolulu, the current minimum on rentals is 30 days. In the Kakaako neighborhood, which of course includes Ward Village, that minimum rental goes from 30 days to 180 days.
