Maui Islander being sold

The leasehold interest for the 372-room hotel is about to change hands

By Rick Daysog
Star-Bulletin

The owner of the Maui Islander Hotel is selling the leasehold interest in the 372-room Lahaina hotel.

James Tweedt, who developed the hotel in 1981, is completing terms of the sale with an unnamed buyer, said Linda Winter, the hotel's general manager.

The price was not disclosed.

The buyer likely will hire a new management company and invest new money in the hotel, Tweedt said in a letter to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The hotel employs about 85 workers. Tweedt said he was hopeful the new management company would rehire hotel employees.

The deal had been scheduled for completion this week but the closing has been pushed back slightly, Winters said.

The Maui Islander is a mid-price hotel that caters to tourists and local residents.

The low-rise hotel sits on 8.63 acres of leasehold land owned by Bishop Estate, state land records show.

County tax assessors have appraised the leasehold interest in the hotel at about $7 million. The property beneath the hotel is worth another $7.8 million. The fee interest is not for sale.

The deal comes at a time when investor interest in Maui's resort business has been rising.

After years of relative inactivity, the Maui resort industry has seen several sales recently, said Ron Watanabe, principal broker at Hotel Partners International, a resort brokerage company.

For instance, a partnership including Signature Resorts Inc. acquired the 413-room Embassy Suites Resort last July, following the Yarmouth Group's late 1996 purchase of the 194-room Kapalua Bay Hotel & Villas.

"There's been a lot of interest on Maui because Maui has had a strong tourism market," Watanabe said.