Marlene De Costa

Marlene De Costa is a member of the Neocatechumenal Way.  She was also catechized by Father Pius.  Father Pius was the head of the Neocatechumenal Way in Guam for many years.  He also became the Rector of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary.  Many thanks to Father Pius and the catechists, communities were born and people like Marlene De Costa put her faith into action.  The story below can be found here, helping the parish using the skills and talents given to her by God.
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In the last decade, Marlene De Costa has overhauled the Diocese of Honolulu’s real estate

By Anna Weaver

Hawaii Catholic Herald

On the whiteboard in Marlene De Costa’s office are two handwritten, faded slogans she’s kept up as a reminder of her mission as the Diocese of Honolulu’s real estate director: “Specialize in the impossible” and “A good plan now is better than a perfect plan later.”

Both mottos have helped her since she began reorganizing the diocese’s real estate holdings in 2010 after retiring from a career in commercial real estate.

“[Serving the church] was a way to marry the things I loved doing to whom I loved doing it for,” De Costa said.

Before she started her role a decade ago, De Costa had already begun volunteering on the diocese’s Land Management and Acquisition Committee. The committee was tasked with creating a strategic plan for the diocese’s real estate holdings as part of its “Road Map.”

After she was hired, De Costa became the committee’s “legs and arms” in overhauling diocesan real estate matters. She used to open up the group’s meetings with a prayer adapted from St. Oscar Romero, the martyred El Salvador archbishop.

One verse reads, “It helps now and then to step back and take the long view.” And De Costa feels that Catholicism helps her see that long view as she strategizes for the Diocese of Honolulu’s future.

“[The prayer] resonates with me on how I should conduct myself when I am in service of others,” De Costa said.

Social work to real estate

De Costa is a cradle Catholic born on Oahu. Her parents moved her and her younger brother, Miles, to the Big Island when she was 6 for her father’s job, and Marlene attended St. Joseph School in Hilo. The family eventually moved back to Oahu, where Marlene attended Maryknoll School from eighth grade through her high school graduation in 1966. She started college at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and then finished a dual degree in social work and sociology at Seattle University. It was in Seattle where she met her future husband, Thomas, who was also from Hawaii.

The couple went on to have two boys, Matthew, 41, and Todd, 37, both of whom attended Holy Trinity School and Saint Louis High School. Todd and his wife, Angela, gave the De Costas two grandsons, Isaiah, 5, who now goes to Holy Family School in Honolulu, and Micah, 2.5.

De Costa began her professional career as a caseworker for the state of Hawaii and worked her way up to a management position there over a 13-year period. She earned an MBA from Chaminade University of Honolulu as she transitioned from social work into business.

“The good thing about having a background in social work is that you have a ton of people skills,” she said of a strength carried over well between the two fields.

She found herself focusing on commercial real estate after taking a job with McDonald’s of Hawaii Development Company. After two years there, she moved into running a commercial property management division at Chaney Brooks for 13 years.

De Costa spent the next seven years as a partner at the Hawaii office for CB Richard Ellis Inc. (CBRE), one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms. After selling her partnership in 2007, she “retired” in 2009 with the plan to go into consulting. But then the Diocese of Honolulu came calling.

Lisa Sakamoto, the diocese’s finance officer says De Costa, 71, is the “grandmother” figure on her end of the diocesan chancery’s third floor. De Costa and Sakamoto’s offices are next to each other and adjacent to the offices of Dara Perreira, human resources director, and Diane Lamosao, financial and systems analysis manager. All four were hired around the same time.

“She’s been our leader with her expertise, her experience,” Sakamoto said. “It’s a nice working relationship we all have.”

“They create a little community in and of itself,” De Costa said of her coworkers. “It’s fun to come to work.”

A large task

De Costa began her part-time job as diocesan real estate director in 2010 by taking inventory of all diocesan and parish-owned properties in the state of Hawaii, which took close to two years.

She and the eight other advisors on the Land Management and Acquisition Committee presented Bishop Silva with recommendations for property sales, purchases and oversight. De Costa also worked with consultants to reevaluate parish boundaries and offer the bishop recommendations on where there was demand in the diocese to expand or contract.

She’s handled 22 property purchases or sales and 38 leases, not including extensions of existing leases, along with helping parishes with issues like easements, evictions, encroachments and real property tax appeals. She’s rewritten the diocesan gift policy, sat on the diocesan finance committee’s investment subcommittee and served on the Hawaii Catholic Schools advisory board.

“I couldn’t have asked for a greater gift … having Marlene’s expertise and of course her Catholicity,” said Sakamoto. “Diocesan real estate has been paired down to a more manageable level that’s yielding returns that are to the benefit of the church.”

“More than anybody she’s provided the discipline in terms of the rental of properties for our parishes,” said Sakamoto, especially helping parishes and the diocese with legal requirements. “Marlene has accomplished everything and above what we had asked her to do when she came in, and now it’s just making sure we maintain it.”

Outside of work, De Costa says volunteering has been a consistent hobby of hers. She has held leadership roles in many real estate industry-related associations, along with being on the boards of the YWCA of Oahu, HUGS and Holy Trinity School.

De Costa was chosen as a trustee for Saint Louis School in 2018 in part because school president Glenn Medeiros had been impressed with her work on the Maryknoll School board of directors when he worked at Maryknoll.

“She’s very much in the know in regards to the Catholic church and real estate,” Medeiros said. “She’s made a big impact [on Saint Louis] in just one year.”

That includes helping advise the school on its aging buildings, many of them dating back to the mid-1920s. “I admire her, I love working with her, I hope she’s with us for a long time,” he added.

On a parish level, De Costa has stayed active over the years in her parish, Holy Trinity, Kuliouou, through the stewardship and finance committees and with the Neocatechumenal Way, which focuses on adult faith formation for Catholics. She says The Way helps her stay focused on her spiritual life.

“When you have to listen to the word of God then you have to look at yourself more closely and you can see yourself better,” she said. “It makes you realize that you aren’t as great as you think you are, that you are on a road home.”

Her journey at the diocese continues. “She can’t retire!” Sakamoto said only half-jokingly, saying there are more things for De Costa to do with local church real estate.

De Costa herself still feels like she has more work to do, properties to sell and manage. For instance, she’s working on the diocese acquiring the city mini park next to the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu. She’s also helping with the development of an affordable housing complex on the former Cathedral School site.

Her planned second retirement date may creep forward as she finishes tasks that she sees as essential to the diocese.

“I’m the bishop’s handmaiden,” she said. “I try and help him anyway I can.”