Amfac sells
big Kauai parcel

Star-Bulletin staff

Private investors have agreed to buy a 6,700-acre parcel of land in East Kauai from Amfac/JMB Hawaii and say they will consult the local community before deciding what to do with it, Amfac said.

Kealia Plantation Co. LLC, a partnership led by Justin and Michele Hughes, made an offer for the entire ahupuaa, an ancient Hawaiian land division consisting of a strip running from the mountains to the ocean.

The price was not disclosed. When Amfac put the property up for sale in early July it was asking $19.5 million. Later, Amfac agreed to sell the makai portion only to a Canadian company, MacMillan Development Corp.

Amfac kept the right to cancel that deal if there was a buyer for the whole ahupuaa and said it is now exercising that right. MacMillan could still get the land if it is willing to buy the whole parcel for what the Hughes group offered.

Justin Hughes, speaking for Kealia Plantation, declined to say what might be done with the land.

"The one thing we know for certain is that we will not seek to rezone it for any commercial use," he said in a statement.

He and his wife have owned Kauai property for nearly 20 years and have investments in California and Colorado, Amfac said.

Amfac, which owns 47,000 acres in the islands, has put about 11,400 acres of it on the market, including the Kealia property.