Old Kaimukī Charm or Development Opportunity? You Decide

This lush property can technically fit a few more homes on it.

Photos: Courtesy of Sarah Cort

On an oversized lot in Kaimukī, this home sits surrounded by fruit trees and tropical vegetation, with a lava-rock staircase and green awnings, evoking a bit of old Hawai‘i. The double-lot of 18,000 square feet features a swimming pool, a modest 1,348-square-foot two-bedroom, one-bath home and a separate ‘ohana unit.

When we say “old Hawai‘i,” we’re thinking of how Kaimukī was originally developed: small homes surrounded by large open yards. In 1884, Dr. Georges Phillipe Trousseau bought Kaimukī for grazing land for $2,325. He sold it 14 years later to Theodore Lansing and A.V. Gear for $20,000, who then created a new suburb of Honolulu. The 300,000-square-foot lots sold for $400 each (yes, you’re reading that right—find more history here). In the latter half of the 20^th century, ‘ohana zoning, new home-condo regulations and additions created the Kaimukī we know now, where you usually have five or six homes on what would have been one of those original parcels.

The property is zoned R-5, which means one home per 5,000 square feet of land. Take that and current accessory dwelling unit law into account, and you could conceivably put four new homes on the property. But after seeing the photos, we’re kind of hoping you won’t.