Kahala Mandarin reviews management pact
The new owners of the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Resort are in talks with Mandarin Oriental Management over the future of the company's contract to manage the landmark property.
But a spokeswoman for the new owners said it would be wrong to infer that the prestigious Mandarin flag definitely would be removed from the 364-room hotel.
Kahala Hotel Investors LLC disclosed the management contract talks yesterday in a news release announcing that it had closed a previously announced deal to acquire the property, Oahu's only hotel to carry AAA's Five Diamond rating.
The deal puts the property under control of Kahala Hotel Investors' main investor, Trinity Investments LLC, a hotel and real estate development and investment firm with experience "acquiring and managing world-class hotels and resorts."
Trinity's chairman and co-founder is Charles Sweeney, a hotel industry veteran who, according to his biography, has "conceptualized, developed, and operated 54 hotels and resorts throughout the continental U.S. and Hawaii with approximately 16,000 guest rooms and suites."
With that kind of management firepower in control of the hotel, and the new owners planning a renovation, the question is whether Kahala Hotel Investors will use Sweeney's expertise to manage the trophy hotel and let the new owners keep the management fees it is paying to Mandarin Oriental.
Kahala Hotel Investors earlier this month received approval of the Honolulu Liquor Commission to transfer its business and hotel license to the new owners. As part of that, the commission also changed the property's trade name to the Kahala Hotel & Resort.
But none of this means Mandarin's flag definitely will be taken off the hotel, said Ruth Ann Becker, a spokeswoman for Kahala Hotel Investors LLC.
"The two entities are in discussions about the terms of that (management) agreement, and that's it," Becker said.