Kalae at Ward Village, Honolulu

Kalae was about 85% pre-sold before Layton Construction turned a shovel. As of June 30, 2026, Howard Hughes reported the tower 94% under contract.

That’s how Hawaii high-rises get financed, and it’s the first thing to understand about the 38-story, 330-residence condominium going up at 1000 Ala Moana Boulevard. Ground broke January 19, 2024. Completion is now targeted for 2028, pushed out from an earlier 2026-2027 estimate, which says something useful about Pacific-market escalation and the depth of the local trade base.

Project Scope

Solomon Cordwell Buenz designed the tower, the same firm behind the neighboring Victoria Place, and Kalae is positioned as its sister building at the waterfront edge of Howard Hughes’ Ward Village masterplan. Layton Construction, Utah-founded with a long Hawaii presence, is general contractor. San Francisco’s NICOLEHOLLIS leads interiors and Vita Inc. handles landscape architecture.

The 330 residences run one to three bedrooms, 799 to 1,878 square feet, priced roughly $1.2 million to $5.3 million and averaging about $1,912 per square foot. The design pulls from 1920s Moorish architecture: secluded courtyards, detailed ornamentation, light limestone in varied finishes set against dark metalwork.

At grade, the podium carries four Malie courtyards, a plaza at Ward Avenue and Auahi Street, street-level retail, and public art. The fifth-level club deck holds three pools (resort, lap, and infinity), a spa, saunas, fitness and movement studios, an owners’ lounge, guest suites, and a dog run. Construction cost hasn’t been disclosed. Howard Hughes projected roughly $606 million in local economic impact at groundbreaking, which is the developer’s own figure.

Why It Matters

Honolulu tower work is its own market. Island logistics stretch procurement lead times, the subcontractor base is narrow, Kakaako design review is strict, and the structure carries seismic and hurricane loading at once. Kalae is among the largest towers currently vertical in that environment, and how Layton holds the 2028 date will be watched by everyone bidding Oahu work.

The sustainability framing is worth reading carefully. Ward Village is the largest LEED-ND Platinum certified community in the United States, which is a masterplan credential and not a building-level rating for Kalae itself. That distinction gets blurred in marketing more often than it should.

And for anyone building a project record, the team here is clean and checkable: SCB, Layton, NICOLEHOLLIS, Vita.

Project Team & Details