KAPALUA BAY HOTEL CLOSES
GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Some 230 employees had their last day of work yesterday at the Kapalua Bay Hotel. Among the workers are Silla Kaina, left, Makanani Catugal, Betty Taira and Corwin Shimomura. Shimomura and Taira have worked at the west Maui hotel since it opened in 1978. The 28-year-old hotel and nearby shops are scheduled to be razed in June to develop a new resort on the site.
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Guests and workers say aloha
A resort and condos will be built on the site in west Maui
KAPALUA, Maui » The 196-room hotel that once served as the flagship for the luxury Kapalua Resort in west Maui closed its doors yesterday after 28 years.
The Kapalua Bay Hotel with about 230 employees, along with the nearby Kapalua Shops, is scheduled to be razed in June to make way for a resort that includes condominium residences.
Jay and Beth Beckwith, who have been guests 36 times said they will miss the hotel and the many employees whom they regard as friends.
"It's the people who make us come back," said Jay Beckwith, a Fort Worth, Texas, physician. "It's like coming home when we come here. They take very good care of us."
Corwin Shimomura, who has worked at the Kapalua Bay Hotel since it opened, said he felt fortunate to have worked there and noted that his employer helped to support his family, including a daughter in college.
The hotel and resort, the brainchild of late Maui Land & Pineapple Co. Chairman Colin Cameron, was built in 1978 at a time when the Valley Isle was undergoing diversification from large-scale agriculture to resort development.
GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Beth and Jay Beckwith of Fort Worth, Texas, said they have been guests at the Kapalua Bay Hotel 36 times and will miss their visits and employees whom they regard as friends.
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Betty Taira, a hotel executive assistant, said Kapalua's logo, the pineapple in the butterfly, showed the metamorphosis taking place in the west Maui community.
Taira said she will miss working at the hotel.
"You come to this place and it's so special," she said.
Employees Makanani Catugal and Silla Kaina said they will miss the employees and guests at the hotel.
Hotel general manager Stan Engeldorf said the hotel has held three job fairs for its employees. At least 70 have found jobs, including Taira and Shimomura.
"We have worked hard at placing our people," said Engeldorf, who manages the hotel for Renaissance Resort. "This is just a new chapter in Kapalua and Maui."
The new chapter of Kapalua Bay includes a collaborative venture involving Maui Land & Pineapple Co., the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., and Exclusive Resorts.
The proposed development on 24 acres includes 84 private residences, a Ritz-Carlton Club and 62 vacation homes.
Developers hope to have the site built and occupied by 2008.
The venture said the private homes will feature floor plans ranging in size from 3,000 to 4,200 square feet, with prices starting at $4 million.