Time for your life
Kuleana, ʻāina, aloha, mauka, makai, ‘ohana: these words ringing with musicality are also resonant with meaning. They all relate, by varying degree, to the fact that at the heart of Hawaiian culture is a devotion and deference to the land—a courtesy for place that shapes traditions, cultures and people. To our terms we can now add Nānā Kai, a new name for a new community by BlackPine Communities and Somers West. Set on a hill in the Island of Hawaii’s golden peninsula of Kohala, Nānā Kai’s collection of luxury homes are part of a larger vision to create an upland oasis of sustainability and stewardship, and fulfill a collective promise to the land.
Nānā Kai means Looking Toward the Sea. It reflects both a physical orientation and a deeper way of life. Spanning 867 acres, Nānā Kai is a symbol of kuleana (responsibility) and aloha ʻāina (love of the land). Ocean and mountain are resident of this place too; Nānā Kai was shaped around them, because guiding every decision, from the siting of homes to the curation of amenities and landscape design, is a duty to everything that was here before, and all that will remain long after.
The architecture of Nānā Kai’s lanai homes is true to Hawaii, speaking softly with natural materials, forms, spacious porches and balconies that feel born of the land itself. The amenities encourage wellness and authentic connection to culture, ecology, locals, neighbors and ‘ohana (family). The streets are shaded by the native landscaping of monkeypod and rainbow shower trees, lava walls and koa wood fences. Here, beneath the shadow of Mauna Kea—a mountain standing sentinel above the wild Pacific—Nānā Kai’s horizon is framed by mauka (toward the mountains) and makai (toward the ocean), and there’s just no telling what adventures it holds.
The peace and privacy found within Nānā Kai extends by way of a network of pathways out, to what, for some, is escapism, and for others, an arrival. An entrance. Waterfalls plunge off towering valleys, coral reefs stretch beneath white and black and green sand beaches, grasslands and golf courses sweep along the interior, trails climb, tall as the trees. One could snorkel in the tropics, hike through rainforests, stroll deserts and even throw snowballs atop mountains—all in one day. Life giving and life affirming, unalloyed and elemental are the experiences of this eternal island.
Nānā Kai is the culmination of a process that has issued forth the rarified reaches of regenerative design. The land itself echoes with history, sacred sites and traces of ancestral life still mark its geography. Development is guided by the belief that nature is something to exist alongside and it invites residents to be with intention, in harmony and always with a sense of foresight. To build here is to honor lore and legacy, to own here is to live, breathe and become part of a millennia-old story—and perhaps, even add to it.
Looking toward the sea is to keep your eyes on the horizon—to move forward while staying in place. It’s the spirit of Nānā Kai: generational and in perpetuity. This community by BlackPine Communities and Somers West is one that honors the past, lives fully in the present, and builds for a future as vast as the great blue Pacific it faces. Because in the end, the greatest luxury there will ever be is the chance to reflect on, while still having, the time of your life.