Phoenix-based Doubletree Corp. said it has agreed to buy the Renaissance hotel chain, which owns the 347-room Renaissance Wailea hotel on Maui and the Waiohi and Poipu Beach hotels on Kauai. The 438-room Waiohi and the 129-room Poipu Beach have been closed since 1992 due to damage from Hurricane Iniki.

A spokeswoman for Doubletree said the company won't make a decision on the future of the Kauai properties until the deal is finalized later this year.

Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka pledged to help the prospective buyers rebuild its Kauai hotels. In a letter to Ueberroth Tuesday, Kusaka offered to meet with Doubletree executives later this month to discuss the two Kauai hotels' future. A spokeswoman for Kusaka said the company has not responded to the letter.

Renaissance, meanwhile, said that the terms of the offer are being reviewed by its board. The purchase also will require the approval of Doubletree shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The purchase would add 146 hotels to Doubletree's chain. Doubletree recently acquired Red Lion Hotels Inc. for $1.2 billion. That acquisition gave it a total of 236 hotels, making it the country's fifth-largest hotel management company.

Doubletree is headed by co-chairmen Ueberroth and Richard Ferris. Ueberroth, a former Major League Baseball commissioner and head of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, led an investor group's purchase of Hawaiian Airlines in 1989. The airline is now controlled by a new group, Airline Investors Partnership.

Previously, the three Hawaii hotels were owned and operated by the Stouffer hotel chain. In 1993, Swiss food giant Nestle S.A. sold Stouffer to Hong Kong-based New World Group, which in turn merged the Stouffer hotels into its Renaissance unit. New World owns 54.4 percent of Renaissance's shares and has agreed to vote in favor of the proposed deal.