Molokai Ranch
building guest lodge
All the permits are in
By Russ Lynch
and groundbreaking is today
Star-BulletinMaunaloa, the former pineapple town in West Molokai, will have its long-planned tourist lodge in 18 months, following Molokai Ranch Ltd.'s formal ground-breaking for the project today.
Costing more than $11 million, the two-story Molokai Ranch Lodge will have 22 guest rooms, a fine-dining room and a game room and lounge with a billiards table, the ranch company said.
Now much more of a tourism company than anything else, Molokai Ranch, owner of 54,000 acres of Molokai, has been seeking to build the lodge for about three years, as part of its $30 million, 20-year rebuilding of Maunaloa as the centerpiece of a new tourism emphasis on the island.
The project now has all the permits it needs.
Jim Mozley, Molokai Ranch president, said the lodge was designed to fit the rural flavor of its surroundings and blend with the special character of the old town. Maui Mayor Linda Lingle, who was to be on hand for today's ceremonies, said the county has worked closely with Molokai Ranch to help bring life to Maunaloa and create jobs.
Molokai Ranch's development of Maunaloa has not been free of controversy. Praise for the creation of jobs has been countered with criticism of the relocation of residents and the demolition of their old plantation homes.
However, residents favoring tourism as the only immediate way to create jobs have praised those developments as well as the steps the company, as owner of the town, has taken to develop the Maunaloa Civic Park, to bring Molokai its first movie theaters, open the Village Grill restaurant, and refurbish the Maunaloa General Store.
The lodge was designed by architect Philip "Pip" White to have the feel of a country ranch house, with wrap-around open air verandas. It is located on an eight-acre site at the entrance to Maunaloa, overlooking ranch lands and the ocean.
Interior design, by Hawaii's Mary Philpotts McGrath, will be on the theme of Hawaii's early plantation and paniolo days. The lobby will feature a large painting of Tootsie Notley, a famous Molokai dancer of the 1930s and 1940s. The primary contractor for the lodge is Fletcher Pacific Construction.
