The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi
Jul 23, 2026 · 32 min · 10 segments
On this week’s episode of the One O‘ahu Podcast, Mayor Rick Blangiardi joins host Brandi Higa to talk about the redevelopment of Iwilei (1:07). Then, Mayor Blangiardi reacts to the Honolulu City…
Rick BlangiardiGuest
Brandi HigaHost
This month flew by, but within this month, we've had a lot of exciting announcements.
One of them was with the Department of Housing and Land Management acquisition of 519 Ka'a'ahi Street.
It's probably our biggest priority when we talk about all the TOD that we have planned and what we're doing, because we took control of real estate, you know, strategic land acquisitions to facilitate the kind of planned growth that we wanted to see.
But, you know, there's a lot of TOD going on now, and there's a lot of work that our Department of Housing and Land Management is taking on.
You know, we have some 70 different kind of transactions all over the place happening um you know some involve our financing some involve what we're doing with respect to working with developers and facilitating use of our affordable housing funds private activity bonds etc i'm so proud of that department but coming back to ice street and what that allows us to do you know there's a long-term project You know it involves some I think we right now or somewhere north of about nine or 10 acres will probably get further along than that.
We bought evil a Center closed on a couple of years ago by next year will be demolishing it probably first quarter of 2027 the street in that whole area now allows us a really incredible.
uh, platform, uh, as Skyline comes in there to build the station, but to build the station in a way that involves housing and retail and, and other spaces and stuff, and also a pass through to North King.
It's just, it's just completely reimagining that area, which has been for all of us, my whole life here, you know, uh, there's been those warehouses and, and what it's been yet the proximity to downtown and all that that represents, the need if you will the challenge for us to build housing that will be affordable because this housing will be affordable you know for all that's been said about the development of kakaaka which is sort of on the other side of downtown as it comes up you know further um in higher end real estate this will be for local families local people tied to transit lines tied to the urban core revitalization uh both with chinatown and downtown in ways that people can afford to live there and be able to commute from there as well.
But that's the excitement of this because we're building stuff that really relates to the future.
And quite honestly, if I can say it this way, In many ways, it will bind future administrations for the fulfillment of this, and I feel good about that because this is stuff that not anybody's going to turn their back on.
We still got almost two years and five months left, but you start to think in terms of that, the projects we're working on.
and what they'll mean, how much of it will actually happen while we're in office, but how the things will follow through.
And I love the fact, especially we're addressing the housing crisis now in ways that have never been addressed before, at least for many, many, many years, decades, that we're addressing a real need, but we're doing it in an exciting way that speaks to the future of Oahu.
This month flew by, but within this month, we've had a lot of exciting announcements.
One of them was with the Department of Housing and Land Management acquisition of 519 Ka'a'ahi Street.
It's probably our biggest priority when we talk about all the TOD that we have planned and what we're doing, because we took control of real estate, you know, strategic land acquisitions to facilitate the kind of planned growth that we wanted to see.
But, you know, there's a lot of TOD going on now, and there's a lot of work that our Department of Housing and Land Management is taking on.
You know, we have some 70 different kind of transactions all over the place happening um you know some involve our financing some involve what we're doing with respect to working with developers and facilitating use of our affordable housing funds private activity bonds etc i'm so proud of that department but coming back to ice street and what that allows us to do you know there's a long-term project You know it involves some I think we right now or somewhere north of about nine or 10 acres will probably get further along than that.
We bought evil a Center closed on a couple of years ago by next year will be demolishing it probably first quarter of 2027 the street in that whole area now allows us a really incredible.
uh, platform, uh, as Skyline comes in there to build the station, but to build the station in a way that involves housing and retail and, and other spaces and stuff, and also a pass through to North King.
It's just, it's just completely reimagining that area, which has been for all of us, my whole life here, you know, uh, there's been those warehouses and, and what it's been yet the proximity to downtown and all that that represents, the need if you will the challenge for us to build housing that will be affordable because this housing will be affordable you know for all that's been said about the development of kakaaka which is sort of on the other side of downtown as it comes up you know further um in higher end real estate this will be for local families local people tied to transit lines tied to the urban core revitalization uh both with chinatown and downtown in ways that people can afford to live there and be able to commute from there as well.
But that's the excitement of this because we're building stuff that really relates to the future.
And quite honestly, if I can say it this way, In many ways, it will bind future administrations for the fulfillment of this, and I feel good about that because this is stuff that not anybody's going to turn their back on.
We still got almost two years and five months left, but you start to think in terms of that, the projects we're working on.
and what they'll mean, how much of it will actually happen while we're in office, but how the things will follow through.
And I love the fact, especially we're addressing the housing crisis now in ways that have never been addressed before, at least for many, many, many years, decades, that we're addressing a real need, but we're doing it in an exciting way that speaks to the future of Oahu.
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