Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Monday, August 31, 1998
Castle Hotels signs with Choice at 2 properties
Two Hawaii vacation properties managed by Castle Hotels & Resorts will be marketed internationally by Choice Hotels, under the Clarion brand. They are the Kiahuna Plantation & the Beach Bungalows, a complex at Kiahuna, Kauai, and the Waikiki Terrace. Castle, which will continue to manage the properties, has had a marketing arrangement since 1996 with Choice Hotels, which has franchise arrangements with 3,600 hotels in 40 countries.
Construction contracts fell for Hawaii in July
Contracts signed in July for future construction in Hawaii were down 53 percent in value compared with contracts in July 1997, according to the F.W. Dodge Division of the McGraw-Hill Cos.F.W. Dodge said total future contracts last month were worth $99.9 million, down from $212.2 million. The biggest drop was in the nonbuilding segment -- such as bridges and airports -- which was down 80 percent at $16 million compared with $79.4 million in July 1997. Residential construction contracts worth $63.6 million were down 16 percent from $75.4 million. Nonresidential work, such as office buildings, drew $20.2 million worth of contracts last month, down 65 percent from $57.4 million in the year-earlier month.
Ocean platform experts to gather in Honolulu
Ocean experts from the Pacific basin are expected to attend the first International Ocean Alliance Floating Platform Summit from Dec. 3-5 at the East-West Center in Honolulu.Invitations have gone out to 225 businesses, scientists, engineers and government leaders in the United States, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The discussion will include platform technology, promising applications, regulatory issues, financing and business opportunities.
Japan has a floating platform under construction in Yokosuka Bay. The United States Department of Defense has proposed a $3.5 billion floating marine air base for Okinawa. Boeing Co. is leading an international consortium to build a satellite-launching platform in the South Pacific.
For information, contact the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at 956-8890.
TWA pilots approve four-year contract
ST. LOUIS -- Pilots for Trans World Airlines Inc. have accepted a four-year contract offer, ending more than a decade of concessions and avoiding a possible strike.About 60 percent of TWA's 2,100 union pilots approved the contract, officials with the Air Line Pilots Association said today. About 91 percent of the pilots voted. The ballots were counted today at the ALPA headquarters in Virginia. The deal gives the pilots their first raise in 12 years. As TWA has struggled through two bankruptcies in the 1990s, pilots and other employees of the St. Louis-based company have often taken cuts in pay and benefits.
The new contract is effective tomorrow. Negotiations have been ongoing since May 1997. Pilots have been working under terms of their old contract since it expired in September 1997.
U.S. sales of new homes leveled off last month
WASHINGTON -- Sales of new single-family homes leveled off in July after a record-setting streak.July sales dropped 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 886,000, the Commerce Department said today. That was the lowest new-home sales rate since March, and followed record-breaking months in April and June.
Economists had been expecting this year's home-buying spree -- fed by low interest rates, plentiful jobs and healthy growth in Americans' incomes -- to slow a bit.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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