Where we build luxury homes
Kailua-Kona and the Kona Coast
Custom and luxury homes across Kailua-Kona, Holualoa and the Kona coast. Kona general contractor →
Waimea, Mauna Lani and the Kohala Coast
Our home base. Resort-community homes at Mauna Lani, Waikoloa Beach Resort, Puako and along the Kohala Coast, where design review alone can take 12 to 18 months. Waimea and Kohala Coast builder →
Anywhere on Hawaii Island
Custom homes across Hawaii County, and what really drives cost and schedule on the Big Island. Big Island custom home builder →
Maui: Kihei, Wailea and beyond
Custom residences and developments in Kihei, Wailea, Kahului, Wailuku and Lahaina, including homes that need SMA permitting. Maui general contractor →
Oahu
Where the firm started. On Oahu the team has built resort-style single-family homes and maintained thousands of homes in privatized military housing. It is one of only two contractors Ohana Military Communities typically allows to work on flag and historic homes.
How a luxury custom home in Hawaii actually comes together
1. Evaluate the lot before you buy it
On a high-end site, the constraints that matter most rarely show in the listing: staging and access on a tight resort lot, SMA jurisdiction near the shoreline, design-review requirements, and utility capacity. A lot that clears review easily but is hard to stage costs more to build on than its price suggests. We assess these before the purchase, not after.
2. Design-build: catch problems while they're still drawings
Masterpiece is a design-build firm, and Chris Oxendine has designed as well as built. Problems with buildability or compliance get caught at the drawing stage. In a resort community, a submittal that comes back doesn't cost one revision. It costs a whole review cycle, and those are measured in months.
3. Budget for the real approval timeline
In the Kohala Coast resort communities, expect 12 to 18 months from concept to design approval and a further 4 to 8 months of Hawaii County permit review. That is roughly 16 to 26 months before construction starts. Mauna Lani has two layers of approval, not one. Details →
4. Make selections early
Everything arrives by barge. Stocked mainland items take 12 to 16 weeks, and made-to-order windows, doors, appliances and custom pieces take 16 weeks or more. Late selections become schedule delay, and on a financed build a month of delay costs roughly 1% to 1.5% of total project cost.
5. Specify for salt air and volcanic rain
Coastal Hawaii is hard on exterior hardware, fasteners, railings, window assemblies and mechanical equipment, and volcanic activity makes Big Island rain slightly acidic. Many exterior products need to be a grade above standard mainland spec. We source directly from manufacturers and import our own containers, which gives us real quality control over marine-grade selections and a better price on them.
6. Build to a critical-path schedule
We run residential projects with the same discipline we use on federal work: critical-path scheduling, documented safety programs to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers EM 385-1-1 standards, and formal reporting to the owner.
How to choose a luxury home builder in Hawaii
Compare builders on things you can check:
- An active Hawaii contractor license. Look it up on the DCCA Professional and Vocational Licensing search. Ours is CT-32126.
- Completed work at your size and type, on your island. Building a resort-community home isn't the same job as building a production home.
- Who is personally accountable. Find out whether the principal runs your job or hands it to layers of management.
- How they source materials. Freight, lead times, tariffs and coastal specifications move a Hawaii budget more than finish selections do.
- Whether they understand entitlement. SMA, design review and county permitting set the schedule. A builder who has done development work plans around them from day one.
- Real capacity. Some builders are strong but booked for years. Ask when your job would actually start.
Selected work and recognition
Custom bamboo estate: Kihei, Maui
A custom residence designed by Bamboo Living Hawaii, with materials sourced directly from Vietnam, Malaysia, Mongolia and Guangzhou. The owner put it this way: "It is hard to get things done on Maui, yet Chris, in true Hawaiian style, patiently handled every obstacle without drama and kept me informed throughout." (Mike, Kihei).
Oceanfront residence: Kihei, Maui
The exterior products had been specified to an ordinary mainland standard and would not have survived the ocean exposure. We reselected them before installation, which cost a fraction of what replacing them after failure would have.
BIA-Hawaii Grand Award
Grand Award, New Residential, BIA-Hawaii Building Industry Design & Construction Awards, for the McCully Apartments in Honolulu (source). Ranked among Hawaii's top 50 general contractors (Pacific Business News, 2019–2021).
Frequently asked questions
Who builds luxury custom homes in Hawaii?
Few licensed builders in Hawaii do high-end custom residential work, and fewer still also handle entitlement and development. Masterpiece Construction & Development is an owner-led luxury builder and developer based in Kamuela on the Big Island. It builds across West Hawaii and Maui under Hawaii contractor license CT-32126, and its roots are on Oahu.
How long does it take to build a luxury home in Hawaii?
It depends mostly on approvals. In Kohala Coast resort communities, plan on 12 to 18 months from concept to design approval, then 4 to 8 months of Hawaii County permit review, before construction starts. Coastal sites may also need SMA review. Material lead times of 12 to 16 weeks, or 16+ weeks for made-to-order items, shape the construction schedule itself.
How much does a luxury custom home cost to build in Hawaii?
We don't quote a flat price per square foot, because on a custom home in Hawaii the biggest cost drivers don't scale with square footage: site access and logistics, resort design standards, marine-grade exterior specifications, freight, and the schedule. Materials typically land 40% to 60% above the mainland online price. See our FAQ on building costs for how we price a project.
Do you work with my architect?
Yes. We work closely with owners and their architects, and as a design-build firm we can also carry the design ourselves. Either way, we review for buildability and compliance during design, when changes cost a drawing instead of a review cycle.
Why owners choose Masterpiece
Builder and developer. We entitle, finance and build, and we've taken our own projects through the full cycle. The numbers you get at the start come from someone who has carried the risk of being wrong about them.
Direct-to-factory sourcing. We import our own containers and visit the factories we buy from. That means better pricing, real quality control, and managed exposure to tariffs and duties.
Federal-standard safety and scheduling. We've delivered work to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requirements, including EM 385-1-1, and we run projects to critical-path schedules.
Design-build. We catch design problems during design, where fixing them costs a drawing instead of a review cycle.
Owner-led. Chris Oxendine runs each project directly. About Chris →
Planning a luxury home on the Big Island, Maui or Oahu? Let's talk through your site, your timeline and your budget.
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