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Starwood joins isle Making its first step into Hawaii's time-share market, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. will hold a ground-blessing ceremony tomorrow at the site of a 280-unit complex it plans to build at Kaanapali, Maui.
time-share market
The company is building a
280-unit complex on Maui
By Russ Lynch
Star-BulletinStarwood's time-share division, Starwood Vacation Ownership Inc., bought the 14-acre property for $19.5 million last month from Amfac/JMB Hawaii, the original developer of Kaanapali. The site is within walking distance of two Starwood-managed resorts hotel, the Sheraton Maui and the Westin Maui.
The project, of one- and two-bedroom villas overlooking the ocean, will be built in three phases and all 280 units should be sold in five years, said Raymond "Rip" Gellein, chairman of Starwood Vacation Ownership.
Each villa will have a fully equipped kitchen, a living room with television and a stereo system, a dining room, television in each bedroom, and a whirlpool tub in the master suite, Gellein said.
Pre-construction sales of the Maui project, which has yet to be given a name, are expected to begin next year. Starwood said details on unit pricing were not available yet.
White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood entered the time-share business last year with the purchase of an established time-share business, Vistana Inc. Now operating as Starwood Vacation Ownership, the business seeks to develop time-share operations near the resorts operated by Starwood under its various brands in Arizona, California, Colorado and Florida, as well as several foreign locations.
In entering the Hawaii market it follows such other big names as Embassy, Marriott and Hilton.
Starwood operates 17 properties in Hawaii. They are five Sheraton Resorts, six in its Luxury Collection, five Westin Prince hotels and one in its "W" brand business class, the W Honolulu -- diamond head.
Like the other big hotel players in the time-share business, Starwood will have a large potential customer base in the thousands of travelers who stay at its hotels or visit its Web site.
Under time-sharing, customers buy a one- or two-week share of a unit and either use it for that time each year or trade it for others around the world. The practice has gained new prestige in recent years. Once tainted by forceful sales pitches promising future resale profits that were not there, the business these days is seen as offering a legitimate long-term investment where a buyer knows what his or her vacation costs will be years into the future.