River Pauahi Apartments has stood at the corner of River and Pauahi streets since 1981: a four-story elevator building on a 0.37-acre City and County of Honolulu parcel facing Nuʻuanu Stream at the edge of Chinatown. Built on a City ground lease with a HUD project-based Section 8 contract, it housed Chinatown's low-income families for 35 years under its original owners. By 2016 the lease had 19 years left, the Section 8 contract was months from expiring, and the building's affordability covenants had lapsed, leaving it one step from conversion to market rents.

In December 2016 River Pauahi Partners LP, with Āhē Group, led by Makani Maeva, and co-general partner Paul C. Fortino of Southport Financial Services, acquired the building for $7 million and recorded a 45-year HHFDC extended-use covenant holding all 48 non-manager apartments at or below 60% of area median income. Under the City's 2015 ordinance allowing 75-year lease extensions for affordable housing (ROH §28-3.4(j)), the City extended the ground lease to December 2091 at $1 a year. The $12.5 million preservation was financed with $9.25 million in HHFDC Hula Mae Multi-Family bonds privately placed with Bank of Hawaii, 4% federal and state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits syndicated by CREA, LLC, and a new 20-year HUD Section 8 contract covering every non-manager apartment, so residents pay no more than 30% of income in rent.

The $2.5 million renovation ran floor by floor from February to July 2017. Residents spent three to four weeks in a nearby hotel at the owner's expense, and every household came home to a renovated apartment: new kitchen and bath cabinets, counters, tubs and fixtures, vinyl plank floors, ceiling fans, Energy Star appliances and low-flow plumbing. The building got a new roof and gutters, upgraded electrical, plumbing and fire-safety systems, ADA improvements, solar water heating, security cameras, landscaping and paint, and the former ground-floor storefront became the on-site management office. Rededicated with a Hawaiian blessing in October 2017, the 41 one-bedroom and 8 two-bedroom homes share an interior courtyard, a laundry room and controlled-access entry. Aʻala Park is a block away, groceries, a pharmacy and the post office are within a quarter mile, and TheBus, Chinatown's markets and downtown's jobs are a short walk.