Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Kevin Auger, director-designate for DHLM on solicitations for City properties and projects in the pipeline

Transcript

Kevin Auger, director-designate for DHLM on solicitations for City properties and projects in the pipeline · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:14
  Welcome to the One Oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, October 2nd, 2025.
• 0:21
  And this week we're sitting down with Kevin Auger, director,
• 0:24
  desert for the city's Department of Housing and Land Management.
• 0:27
  Kevin, thanks for joining us. It's my pleasure. Brandi.
• 0:30
  You know,
• 0:30
  the last time you sat down with us was back in February of this year. Yes.
• 0:34
  And you wanted to talk about Super Bowl food?
• 0:36
  I did.
• 0:37
  I know, I gotta think of something. Where in October.
• 0:39
  Now you gotta think of your favorite Halloween candy. Something like that.
• 0:42
  But you know, it's been a few months, so.
• 0:45
  So what's been going on? Give us an update.
• 0:46
  What's happening in Department of Housing and Land Management?
• 0:49
  You know, it's pretty.
• 0:49
  It's only been eight months.
• 0:51
  And some days it feels like it's been eight days.
• 0:54
  And some days it feels like it's been eight years. Right.
• 0:56
  But in January of last year, we presented the city council,
• 1:00
  the administration's strategic plan to address affordable housing on Oahu.
• 1:04
  And that plan focused on, you know, half a dozen key issues.
• 1:07
  And those were driving development towards the skyline corridor.
• 1:12
  The second was really trying to activate
• 1:14
  Tod areas, because that's the place where you can get the most density,
• 1:18
  for development of housing, focusing
• 1:20
  on, new structures for finance, because we really need
• 1:24
  to, you know, in addition to be able to build these, we need them.
• 1:28
  So we got to be able to finance them.
• 1:32
  Focusing on policies,
• 1:34
  and making certain that the policies that we have in place, work well.
• 1:39
  And so we've retained you here to assist us with that.
• 1:42
  And then, the most important thing, obviously, that we're very proud of
• 1:46
  was creating the Department of Housing
• 1:48
  and Land Management last May, which is approved by city council.
• 1:52
  Sorry. And just to dive into that.
• 1:54
  When you say policy, what do you mean?
• 1:56
  So one of the things that's been,
• 1:58
  you know, curious to me is we create a lot of housing policy,
• 2:02
  but we really have a lot of data to support it.
• 2:04
  And when we create policies, we don't really take a step back
• 2:07
  after a couple of years to examine whether or not those policies are working.
• 2:11
  How are they achieving their desired result?
• 2:14
  What's working? What's not?
• 2:15
  How can we adjust things to make it better?
• 2:18
  And so that's one of the things that we're, and engaging with you earlier
• 2:21
  this year.
• 2:22
  And I think one of the biggest changes this year was the reorganization, right.
• 2:25
  Housing and land management that, you know, fire department.
• 2:28
  So what does that mean exactly?
• 2:29
  Yeah, it sure is, Renee.
• 2:31
  You know, as the mayor says a lot, when he first came into office,
• 2:35
  there was literally one person in the Office of Housing and that person
• 2:40
  was responsible for for housing functions and homelessness functions.
• 2:45
  You know, one person for a population of a million people,
• 2:48
  that made absolutely no sense.
• 2:52
  We've had decentralized housing functions
• 2:54
  in the city for almost 30 years, right?
• 2:57
  That's a full generation.
• 3:00
  So the folks that had the talent around financing
• 3:03
  and building and acquiring, they've all left the building, right.
• 3:07
  And so we have to completely rebuild it.
• 3:09
  So we've established a new department with several divisions.
• 3:12
  And those divisions will focus on land acquisitions, housing development,
• 3:17
  housing finance, housing, property management.
• 3:20
  And really important to us is the housing policy division.
• 3:24
  And to help us run that housing policy division, we brought in a fellow
• 3:28
  named Gavin Thornton, who's a 16 year veteran with Appleseed Hawaii.
• 3:33
  He's very deeply rooted in advocacy for housing.
• 3:38
  He's been doing it for a long time,
• 3:40
  and he's going to be working with us to help us.
• 3:43
  Take a look at all of the policies that we currently have on our
• 3:46
  on our books and the ordinances in place to understand
• 3:49
  what's working, what's not, and how should we potentially change this?
• 3:53
  So it's really key that that position, Brandi is also an appointed position.
• 3:59
  So the new department that we've established
• 4:00
  is a little bit unique because we have a director,
• 4:03
  designate me, we have Cat or my partner who's the deputy.
• 4:08
  Both of those positions are appointed by the mayor as our most,
• 4:11
  deputy and director positions.
• 4:14
  But Gavin's position, the housing policy director is also an appointed position.
• 4:18
  And that's really key because it will allow
• 4:20
  not only this administration, but future administrations
• 4:23
  to have an input and an insight into housing policy in the city.
• 4:27
  So what's changed in this department since the last time we had you?
• 4:30
  So if you think about the way that the department is structured with the
• 4:33
  with the housing, Land Transactions Division, housing Development
• 4:38
  Division of the Housing Policy Division, the Housing Finance division.
• 4:42
  Think of it kind of as a conveyor belt, right?
• 4:44
  So we acquire land.
• 4:46
  We put that land out to development partners.
• 4:49
  We try to find ways to finance those developments, and we continue
• 4:53
  to look at the housing policy to make those developments better.
• 4:57
  One of the biggest changes that we've had over the last few months
• 5:00
  is just the way that we approach housing in a critical in a,
• 5:04
  in a cornerstone of our strategy, that we presented to council
• 5:09
  was the use of public lands for development in the past.
• 5:13
  It was really difficult.
• 5:15
  We had to issue a request for proposals, and we had to put,
• 5:19
  you know, these packages together that would take months and months, and
• 5:22
  they had to get approved by procurement, and they had to get approved by council,
• 5:27
  and they would take literally years to get it out into the marketplace.
• 5:30
  And last year, we worked with the governor's office to,
• 5:34
  affect changes in his emergency proclamation for housing
• 5:38
  that allows the city to issue requests for qualifications
• 5:41
  so we can put a proposal out on the street and seeking just the best partner
• 5:45
  for that particular property or the particular city land that we're
• 5:49
  going to be working on.
• 5:51
  And, and select that partner
• 5:54
  and then work through the development plan together, which is really unique.
• 5:57
  We've never really had that capability in the past.
• 6:00
  And so in our strategic plan, we identified ten properties,
• 6:04
  that were existing city properties, many of them on our books for decades.
• 6:09
  And we were able to issue requests for qualifications.
• 6:11
  We've we've of the ten that we've identified, we've,
• 6:16
  issued requests for qualifications for eight of those properties.
• 6:19
  So literally once a month, that's unprecedented, in the city's history.
• 6:25
  And what we're doing with that, Brandi, is building a pipeline of potential
• 6:28
  affordable housing development.
• 6:30
  The ten properties that we identified can support 2500 units of affordable housing.
• 6:34
  So it's it's really exciting.
• 6:36
  I mean, we're really back in the game, if you will.
• 6:39
  Yeah.
• 6:40
  And, Kevin, I think it's no secret that we can't do this kind of work alone.
• 6:43
  Right? So.
• 6:44
  So what kind of partnerships make projects
• 6:46
  like this move forward, make it successful?
• 6:48
  Yeah, well, it takes a village, right?
• 6:50
  First and foremost, city doesn't want to be in the development business alone.
• 6:55
  And working with development partners who are experts in this space,
• 6:58
  who do this every day, who have the expertise on their teams
• 7:02
  to do this is really important to us.
• 7:03
  So building those relationships is is really key.
• 7:07
  Being able to put that number of RFQ on the street
• 7:12
  and the number of properties on the street
• 7:13
  has allowed us to really rebuild those relationships quickly.
• 7:16
  That's important to us because it allows us to scale up,
• 7:20
  so we don't have to hire all the people to do it ourselves.
• 7:22
  We partner with people and it just gives us scale very quickly.
• 7:25
  And that's really important.
• 7:26
  But it's not just the development partners.
• 7:28
  You know, we're also, reactivating our relationships
• 7:31
  with city, state and federal partners, which is really important.
• 7:35
  Neighborhood boards, community organizations
• 7:37
  and advocacy groups, which is really, really key to us because these are
• 7:41
  these are the people that are in the fight every day on the ground, on the streets.
• 7:45
  They understand their neighborhoods and understand their communities.
• 7:47
  And working with them is really important to the city,
• 7:50
  because it gives us an insight into what's really needed.
• 7:53
  And most importantly, is working with city council.
• 7:55
  You know, that that relationship, as we continue to build our platform out
• 7:59
  and move forward, it's going to be really key.
• 8:01
  We believe that, the administrations and the mayor's housing priorities
• 8:05
  are completely aligned with City council, and we just want to continue to build
• 8:09
  that collaborative spirit.
• 8:11
  And continue to work together and make progress together and addressing
• 8:14
  affordable housing needs in Ohio.
• 8:16
  When you say state and federal partners, who are those partners?
• 8:19
  Yeah.
• 8:19
  So we work closely together with the,
• 8:22
  the Hcdc the way Housing Finance and Development Corporation.
• 8:26
  We work together closely with the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.
• 8:29
  In fact, they just provided us
• 8:31
  with a very significant grant for the center property,
• 8:34
  $700,000 grant for Tod, planning.
• 8:38
  We work with the Hawaii Community Development
• 8:44
  Organization, which is really important to us
• 8:46
  for working out and ironing out infrastructure issues on the island.
• 8:51
  And most importantly, you know, just our relationship with the governor's office.
• 8:54
  We meet with the governor's office,
• 8:56
  and we have standing meeting every Thursday morning at 8:00.
• 8:58
  We exchange ideas, knowledge, information, just to stay in tune
• 9:03
  on what's going on and understanding how we can work together.
• 9:06
  You did mention L.A. center.
• 9:09
  What is that?
• 9:09
  And then if you could just talk about
• 9:11
  some other projects that you guys have going on right now.
• 9:12
  Sure. Well, we got a lot of stuff going on.
• 9:14
  I mean, at any given time, the department's got 40 or 50 transactions
• 9:18
  going on, and that's acquisitions.
• 9:20
  It's dispositions, it's financings.
• 9:23
  It's, the development transactions that we're working on.
• 9:27
  We also run the Clean Water and Natural Lands funds, and we've got 3
• 9:30
  or 4 large transactions currently underway.
• 9:33
  So there's a lot of stuff going on.
• 9:35
  Another thing that folks don't, realize that are or our department organizes
• 9:41
  is, grants of easements,
• 9:44
  across properties, whether those are city properties
• 9:46
  or in reverse with the city needs an easement across a private property,
• 9:50
  and rights of entry onto various properties.
• 9:52
  And those can get very complicated sometimes.
• 9:56
  One significant transaction that we're currently working on that
• 9:59
  we hope will close this week, is the financing using the city's private
• 10:02
  activity bonds for Hill Park Terrace, which is a state property.
• 10:07
  It'll support 304 units of housing.
• 10:09
  It's something that we've been working on for the last eight months.
• 10:13
  One of the things I think people don't really understand
• 10:15
  is just how complicated those transactions are.
• 10:18
  This particular transaction we've been, as I mentioned,
• 10:21
  working on for eight months, there's nearly 70 participants
• 10:25
  in the weekly closing calls that we have.
• 10:27
  There's over 300 documents, 3000 pages of documentation.
• 10:31
  So it's a really big move.
• 10:32
  It's a big lift to close these bond fundings.
• 10:35
  The other things that we're working on or collective, my village,
• 10:38
  which had just had its groundbreaking in September,
• 10:41
  that was $30 million worth of private activity bonds that the city supplied.
• 10:45
  But we also supplied nearly four acres of land for that, for that development.
• 10:51
  The Aloha Olive oil, property, which just completed in August of this year.
• 10:56
  And that's very exciting.
• 10:57
  That was also city land, I think, about three and a half acres of city land
• 11:01
  and $7 million worth of city's affordable housing fund, which was great.
• 11:06
  And that.
• 11:06
  No, not all apartments,
• 11:07
  which just opened its, in September of this year and that was,
• 11:12
  that was completed with $5 million worth of affordable housing funds.
• 11:16
  In addition to all of those housing projects, Brandi,
• 11:19
  we also support, our sister departments.
• 11:22
  So, for instance, we just closed a $12 million acquisition
• 11:25
  on 222 North School Street with the Atherton Foundation.
• 11:29
  And that'll be the new headquarters
• 11:30
  and home for our Department of Community Services.
• 11:33
  The Department of Community Services has,
• 11:36
  has offices located throughout downtown in the area.
• 11:40
  And it's going to allow them for the first time to consolidate.
• 11:42
  Yeah.
• 11:42
  I don't think people realize that.
• 11:44
  Know, like when they when they show up to work,
• 11:45
  they're going all over the over the place when you work for DCA.
• 11:48
  So we're excited that they now have. Yeah.
• 11:50
  So we're really excited
• 11:51
  to be able to support that and complete that transaction for them.
• 11:54
  But in addition to that, you know, we also one of the things
• 11:57
  that we're really proud of is just the
• 11:58
  the work that we do in the support that we provide for our first responders.
• 12:02
  So we just recently closed, 18 819,
• 12:06
  our 20th Street, which will be an annex for the police department.
• 12:09
  Police department, we're working on an acquisition on the North Shore called
• 12:14
  Shark's Cove, which will be the new home for our ocean safety team.
• 12:18
  Our newest department.
• 12:19
  And then we, we have completed the purchase
• 12:23
  and sale agreement for a property called blood Bank, which is also in Brittania,
• 12:27
  which will be the new home for our EMS services team.
• 12:30
  And that's expected to close in March.
• 12:33
  And then beyond that, as I mentioned earlier,
• 12:35
  we also have the Clean Water and Natural Lands funds,
• 12:37
  and we have a big transaction that's taking us 12 years to close.
• 12:42
  It's expected to close this week, and we're excited about that.
• 12:44
  And we've got three other large transactions in the pipeline.
• 12:47
  Well, and Kevin, you know, for those who
• 12:49
  maybe they haven't been paying attention, I know this one has been in the news
• 12:52
  a lot lately, but if you like center right.
• 12:53
  Todd, right in the heart of Honolulu because our skyline stations are quickly,
• 12:58
  coming up, what is even center for those who are familiar?
• 13:01
  You know, Brandi, it's a great question.
• 13:04
  And sometimes I'm trying to figure that out myself.
• 13:06
  How would you how would you describe that?
• 13:08
  So, so, you know, as I mentioned before, the rail is now a reality.
• 13:12
  Whether you like it, whether you hate it, you know, it is what it is.
• 13:15
  We've got 20 miles of rail core to work with that
• 13:18
  where we can really support a lot of density for housing.
• 13:22
  Over the last 15 years or so, the Department of Planning
• 13:25
  and Permitting has been preparing these transit
• 13:28
  oriented development neighborhood plans, and I think we have 8 or 9 of them
• 13:32
  in their plans that have been fully vetted by the communities that they're in.
• 13:37
  They've been approved by city council and the Blangiardi administration.
• 13:41
  With the rail finally coming
• 13:42
  online, has the opportunity to activate some of those areas.
• 13:46
  And we've chosen, the Eveleigh area around the Cooley rail station
• 13:50
  has the first one that we're really going to lean into,
• 13:53
  and really we're approaching that
• 13:54
  from a perspective of how we want to do Tod, right, and how transit oriented
• 14:00
  development can really be transformative for some of these communities.
• 14:04
  So the Eveleigh Center is a property that we acquired in
• 14:06
  January of 2024, just a few months ago.
• 14:10
  It's a four acre site.
• 14:11
  It's literally feet from the new rail station,
• 14:15
  and we're going to be developing that site.
• 14:17
  We've selected the development partner for it, and we're really excited about that.
• 14:22
  We want to break ground on that site by the end of 2028.
• 14:25
  We believe it can support 700 to 800 units of housing.
• 14:30
  And it's important to, to break ground by the end of 28
• 14:33
  because the rail is going to be running through by 2031.
• 14:36
  And we'd love to have that building opened and occupied
• 14:39
  by the time skyline is right at Coulee Station.
• 14:42
  But beyond that brandy, we're also looking at a 1617
• 14:46
  acre site directly around the Eveleigh Center area.
• 14:50
  And that area can support 2003 thousand units of housing.
• 14:55
  And we're working, currently with a team called,
• 14:59
  we we had received a, a
• 15:02
  Tod pilot grant from the federal transmission.
• 15:05
  Transportation Administration, and it's a $2 million grant
• 15:09
  combined with the $700,000 grant that we received from the USDA.
• 15:13
  And I mentioned earlier.
• 15:15
  So we have approximately $3 million to complete planning around there.
• 15:19
  And there's there's two planning aspects
• 15:22
  that that are kind of proceeding in a parallel effort.
• 15:25
  One is trying to understand what the infrastructure needs
• 15:28
  are for the Eveleigh Capital Air
• 15:30
  papilloma area,
• 15:31
  which is a broader area that can support about 3000 units of housing.
• 15:35
  And then within that is this 1617
• 15:37
  acre, site right around Kahului Rail station.
• 15:41
  We'll be completing master planning for.
• 15:43
  So two really significant initiatives that were currently underway.
• 15:48
  What should residents look out for over the next few months
• 15:51
  coming out of your department next few months?
• 15:54
  Continued hard work of of you.
• 15:56
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:57
  But it's not, you know, Brandi, it's not just about the next few months, right?
• 16:00
  We've got just a little less than 800 days left remaining in this administration.
• 16:04
  And, you know, part of the part of my,
• 16:08
  you know, I have a great, a phenomenal team.
• 16:10
  Just a really incredible, hard, hard working, phenomenal team.
• 16:13
  I've got great partners in Cat and her, our deputy
• 16:17
  and Gavin Thornton and the rest of the team.
• 16:20
  Justin Lamantia, who's our public information
• 16:23
  officer, has just done a great job getting our message out.
• 16:27
  But some days I feel like, you know, we're really running fast
• 16:31
  and hard, trying to make up for 30 years worth of neglect.
• 16:34
  And so it's not just about,
• 16:35
  you know, the next few months will be focused on completing these RFQ
• 16:39
  and getting our development contracts and, and ground leases
• 16:43
  completed with our development partners, and building that financing pipeline
• 16:47
  and trying to find creative ways to finance those projects.
• 16:50
  In fact, we we just, partnered with the center for Public Enterprise,
• 16:55
  who will be in Hawaii and, at the end of October.
• 16:59
  And they're working with us to develop some really neat, and, and new models
• 17:03
  for, structuring some of the financing that we're going to need.
• 17:07
  But really, at the end of the day,
• 17:09
  you know, for us, it's about really rebuilding this platform.
• 17:12
  So the the platform that we hand off to the next team is, is capable,
• 17:17
  it's got the capacity it needs, it's got the credibility that needs and we've,
• 17:21
  we've delivered something and left this place, a lot better than we found it.
• 17:25
  I mean, that's really our our chief goal.
• 17:27
  Kevin, the last time we sat down with you, I asked you a question
• 17:30
  of our responsibility.
• 17:32
  Because affordable housing, housing.
• 17:34
  You know, we still have so many people
• 17:35
  moving to the mainland because it's just not affordable here.
• 17:38
  And I asked you about what that was like for
• 17:40
  you personally to hold that responsibility.
• 17:42
  Now that you are a few months into the Department of Housing
• 17:45
  and Land Management as one department, how has that changed for you?
• 17:49
  Well, I don't sleep a lot and I don't see my family much.
• 17:52
  That's one thing.
• 17:53
  But it's, you know, and it's a really serious issue for me.
• 17:58
  Yeah.
• 17:58
  You know, I have a son that's, just about to graduate from high school, and he.
• 18:03
  He wouldn't be able to find a place to live here based on what he has to live on.
• 18:07
  And I know that there are, parents and families,
• 18:11
  that struggle with that every single day.
• 18:13
  And, you know, the bottom line for us is we need more housing,
• 18:17
  whether it's market rate housing, whether it's 30 Am below,
• 18:21
  whether it's workforce housing, we just need it in every sector,
• 18:24
  in all locations, in all communities, in every council member district.
• 18:27
  We just need more of it.
• 18:29
  And the city can play an important role in delivering that housing.
• 18:32
  And and that's what we're establishing this platform to do.
• 18:36
  And so where can folks find more information like you said?
• 18:38
  Right. Affordable market rate.
• 18:40
  Like if I'm looking for something
• 18:42
  and I'm looking to get more information on the projects in the pipeline, where
• 18:45
  can they go to find more information?
• 18:46
  If folks are interested in learning more about what we do,
• 18:48
  Brandi, they can go to honolulu.gov backslash DHL.
• 18:53
  Kevin. Right on. Is there anything that we missed?
• 18:56
  You know, Brandi,
• 18:57
  I think the only thing that we missed is I, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't
• 19:00
  put a shout out to all of our other sister departments in the city.
• 19:04
  You know, we have a phenomenal cabinet and all of them incredibly responsive.
• 19:09
  I don't think there's a single department that we don't work with.
• 19:12
  Every single day to help affect changes and, and,
• 19:16
  deliver more affordable housing, whether that's water, water supply or EMV.
• 19:20
  And working with TDs who helps us to acquire property
• 19:24
  and working really closely with DPP and working
• 19:27
  with the Department of Community Services so we can develop a pipeline of,
• 19:30
  you know, transformative
• 19:31
  housing from homelessness all the way up to workforce housing.
• 19:35
  We work really close with these people
• 19:37
  every single day, and they're an incredibly supportive team.
• 19:40
  Well said.
• 19:41
  Well, Kevin, I want to finish this the way I started.
• 19:43
  I usually ask you a seasonal question.
• 19:45
  So in the season, what are we in October?
• 19:48
  What is your favorite Halloween candy? Kit-Kat.
• 19:50
  That was quick. Yeah, I had a prepared one.
• 19:54
  All right, so if you're
• 19:54
  listening, Kevin's office is an FMV, and he does like Kit Kats.
• 19:58
  Kevin, thank you so much for your time.
• 19:59
  Thank you very much for. It's a pleasure, as always.
• 20:01
  And mahalo to all of you for listening.
• 20:03
  And until next time. Aloha.