High-rise dwellers in Kaka'ako will see more new neighbors today as initial occupants begin moving into Ko'olani, Honolulu's second luxury condominium tower to be completed this year.

About half of the buyers in the nearly sold-out 369-unit project on Queen Street completed their purchases yesterday and started picking up keys to units bought for an average price between $800,000 and $850,000.

Buyers of units in the upper half of the 47-story building aren't scheduled to complete their purchases until mid-May, after interior work is wrapped up.

Most Ko'olani buyers, according to developer Crescent Heights, are Hawai'i and Mainland West Coast residents, with a kama'aina majority represented by people like Ed and Larna Valdez, a couple selling their four-bedroom Makiki Heights home of 21 years for a two-bedroom unit in the glass-sided tower just diamondhead of Victoria Ward Centers.

"We're downsizing now," said Ed Valdez, a retired Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard worker. "Oh, this is really nice," said his wife, gazing at the giant hotel-like lobby.

Ruth Aloni, a 30-year Hawai'i resident who sold her Kane'ohe home three years ago as part of a divorce, couldn't wait to call Ko'olani home after three years of renting.

"This is exciting," said Aloni, who contracted to buy her unit in March 2004 and plans to move in today. "It's been a nice long wait. It's kind of like the day would never come."

Ko'olani is the second of a dozen or so residential towers planned for construction and completion in the next five years in Kaka'ako, an epicenter of high-rise condo development on O'ahu that is on pace to exceed the area's condo building boom in the late 1980s.

Ko'olani follows the January completion of Hokua, a 247-unit tower where units sold for about $1 million on average.

The next project scheduled for completion is Moana Pacific, a pair of oval towers with 706 units on Kapi'olani Boulevard between Pi'ikoi and Pensacola streets, slated to open in January.

Among others expected to follow is a second Crescent Heights high-rise called Ko'olua.

Ko'olua is planned next to Ko'olani and would complete a five-tower master plan started by Nauru Phosphate Royalties (Honolulu) Development Inc., which developed the adjacent Nauru Tower, Hawaiki Tower and 1133 Waimanu condo in the 1990s before suffering financial difficulties that led the firm to sell two undeveloped parcels to Miami-based Crescent Heights in April 2003.

Ko'olua is tentatively projected to begin sales and construction in late spring or early summer. Roughly 300 one- and two-bedroom units in the V-shaped tower will likely be priced below the luxury level, in accord with O'ahu's slowing housing market that is seeing demand and prices slacken for high-end homes.

Ko'olani rode the boom in housing prices over the last two years of construction and sales, which started in late 2003 with two-bedroom units priced from $585,000. Today, three two-bedroom units have yet to be sold for about $1.2 million to $1.5 million. Seven two-level penthouse units, some with rooftop lanais, remain unsold at prices from $1.7 million to $2.6 million.

Kathryn Acorda, Crescent Heights regional marketing director, said sales at Ko'olani were strong. "Luxury was in high demand," she said. "We were thrilled with the success of it."

Aloni, who two years ago stopped in at the Ko'olani sales office as a sales representative for plumbing fixture manufacturer American Standard, said the quality and amenities planned for the building convinced her to buy.

Among Ko'olani features are a theater seating about 20 people, a billiards room, a hotel-like spa, a lap pool, a putting green, two tennis courts, a party or meeting room, and a business center with a conference room and computer stations.

Local housing market analyst Ricky Cassiday recently predicted that developers will start to target the middle of the housing market at prices from $400,000 to $600,000 as demand for higher-end homes fades.

Because of inflated costs for construction materials, labor and land, builders probably won't develop new high-rise condos in Honolulu for much less, Cassiday has said.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.