We are pleased to share that Nāulu has been recognized with the 2026 CoStar Impact Award for Multifamily Development of the Year in Hawaiʻi.
The award was announced by CoStar News on March 25, 2026, highlighting the project’s role in addressing the ongoing shortage of quality, long-term affordable housing for working families and seniors in Oʻahu. The CoStar Impact Awards program recognizes commercial real estate projects and transactions that have significantly influenced neighborhoods and submarkets in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, with winners selected by independent panels of local industry professionals.
Located at 99-009 Kalaloa Street in ʻAiea, Nāulu is a 25-story affordable housing community in the Halawa Transit-Oriented Development corridor, near Pearl Harbor and the future Aloha Stadium redevelopment. Project materials identify Nāulu as a 302-unit community completed on June 18, 2025.
As project architect, AHL was proud to contribute to a development that responds to one of Hawaiʻi’s most urgent needs: housing for working families, seniors, and kūpuna located near jobs, schools, transit, and essential services.
Nāulu also stands out for its scale. In one of the nation’s most supply-constrained and high-cost housing markets, it demonstrates what is possible when planning, financing, design, and public-private partnerships align around long-term community benefit.
Planned within the Halawa transit-oriented development (TOD) district, the development supports broader state and county goals[JC1.1] to reduce car dependence, shorten commutes, and improve access to employment centers and services.
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Beyond unit count, the submission highlighted the project’s focus on livability, dignity, and community. Residents benefit from amenities and shared spaces intended to support daily life and foster connection, including gathering spaces, outdoor areas, and resident-focused common amenities. This aspect of the project was especially important, reinforcing the idea that affordability should not require a compromise in design quality, comfort, or sense of belonging.
The project’s cultural grounding is another important part of its identity. The name Nāulu, meaning “rain cloud,” reflects ideas of renewal, nourishment, and continuity. According to the submission materials, the project incorporates public art and local cultural elements that strengthen neighborhood identity and connect the development more meaningfully to place. Nāulu transforms affordable housing from faceless infrastructure into culturally rooted, community-centered homes.
Hawaiʻi judging panel member Grant Howe, managing member of Commercial Properties of Maui, said the project meets a “direct need for multifamily statewide.”
Yifan Chen, assistant professor of finance and real estate at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, described Nāulu as delivering “deeply affordable, transit-oriented housing at meaningful scale,” while preserving dignity and long-term stability for Hawaiʻi’s working families and kūpuna.
We are honored to see Nāulu Apartments recognized through the 2026 CoStar Impact Awards. This recognition reflects the dedication of the entire project team and reinforces the importance of collaborative, community-centered housing solutions in Hawaiʻi.
