Nānākuli Village Center

Location: Nānākuli, Wai’anae, O’ahu

Type: Commercial Center

Status: Completed


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Pupukahi Development, LLC developed a 6 acre commercial center located in Nānākuli, HI on the island of Oahu. It is an important facet of the more widely known Nanakuli Village Center. Pupukahi completed the Nānākuli Commercial Center in 2019 and some of the tenants include: Long’s/CVS, Fresenius, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Wendy’s,Taco Bell, Starbucks, L&L Barbeque, Pizza Hut, and Kainalu Surf Shop.

The Nānākuli Village Center 

In an effort to determine their own destiny, obtain self-governance, and independence from the state's oversight, and after many years of intensive community-based planning, the Nānākuli Hawaiian Homestead Community Association (NHHCA) with the help of Hawaiian Community Development Board (HCDB) has developed a major “village center” project that will include a multipurpose learning center, a 48-unit affordable rental housing complex, a Waianae Comp satellite health clinic with an affordable drug pharmacy, a large renal clinic and a commercial center with Longs as the anchor tenant.

Pursuant to a 65-year general lease to NHHCA from Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), this exciting community development project is ideally located on a 13.57 acre site centrally located in the Nanakuli Hawaiian homesteading community (adjacent to the Nanaikapono Elementary School, Ka Waihona Charter School and the YET Boys & Girls Club).

The Nanakuli Village Center is a community development project with three interconnected and well planned components: a commercial center, affordable housing, and a cultural learning center. 

Nānākuli Commercial Center 

The work on the $20 million Nānākuli Commercial Center, which was a collaboration between Nānākuli Hawaiian Homestead Community Association and Pupukahi Development, has been completed and is operational. This 6 acre multi-building retail/health services commercial project fronts Farrington Highway and carries a design rooted in the Hawaiian cultural plantation theme. Anchor tenant is CVS Longs Drug Store. It's stand alone store has a drive-thru window and pharmacy. The project’s other tenants are Starbucks, Wendy's, Taco Bell, L&L Drivein,  Pizza Hut, and Kainalu Surf Shop.

The community owned and run Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center is building a 9,252 sq. ft. single story, stand alone satellite medical facility that will house a family clinic and low-cost pharmacy. With the many health problems plaguing our Hawaiian families in Nānākuli and the Waianae coast, the need for such a centrally located and readily accessible health center is quite apparent.

Liberty Dialysis Hawaii LLC is an affiliated company of Fresenius Medical Care, the nation's largest network of over 2,150 dialysis centers dedicated to improving the life of every patient suffering from kidney disease. This type of health problem affects many people in our Hawaiian communities. Liberty will provide patient-centered care based on the latest technology with innovative and efficient programs.

There is also a centrally located area within the shopping center reserved for kiosks for small community based businesses and special events.

Offsite improvements accompanied this development and include a main signalized intersection, turn lanes, sidewalks and a bus stop shelter. The onsite work, which included an inline building, the Fresenius building, and Starbucks, along with several building pads for Longs, Wendy's and Taco Bell, parking, sidewalks, lighting, landscaping and a gathering area for kiosks, was the result of Pupukahi’s development work and expertise.

Hale Makana O Nānākuli Affordable Rental Housing Complex 

In response to overcrowded households, severely dilapidated houses, and the lack of affordable housing opportunities in the Nānākuli Homesteads, Nānākuli Hawaiian Homestead Community Association forged a working relationship with the nonprofit Hawaiian Community Development Board and California company Urban Housing Communities to develop a $15 million 48-unit affordable multi-family rental housing project in Nānākuli. Construction has been completed.  

The Hale Makana O Nānākuli project is providing safe, secure transitional and long-term rental housing designed to meet the needs of the Nānākuli community, with focus on Nānākuli 's low-income Hawaiian families who earn no more than 40% and 30% of the adjusted median income for Oahu. It is providing immediate relief to many Nānākuli families with too many members living in the same household, to families living in dangerous dilapidated houses, and families who have been forced to abandon their homes. 

Hale Makana was designed to help the Nānākuli homestead community by providing alternate housing, but within a major "Village Center" that also includes multi-purpose learning, community health, and commercial retail center.

Agnes Kalaniho'okaha Cope Community Learning Center

Kamehameha Schools designed and is operating the Agnes Kalanihoʻokaha Cope Community Learning Center (AKC-CLC) in Nānākuli in recognition of the community’s education aspirations and alignment to Kamehameha Schools SP 2020 goals for an improved educational system (Goal 2) and cultivation of a strong Native Hawaiian identity (Goal 3). The learning center draws from the work of the Nānākuli Hawaiian Homestead Community Association and embodies its intent to honor the legacy of Agnes Kalaniho‘okaha Cope in her championing of Hawaiian culture-based health and education.

Kamehameha Schools worked with community stakeholders and other partners to develop a suite of programs and a learning center that reflects the expressed needs of the Nānākuli community and supports its current and future learning opportunities.

The AKC-CLC provides lifelong learning and livelihood opportunities in the Nānākuli community that integrates health, education and ‘āina-based knowledge, skills and practices in every aspect of its operations.

Please watch a short documentary on The Story of the Nanakuli Village Center.