LIHUE >> The 18,000 acres of former Amfac/JMB land purchased Friday by America Online founder Steve Case will take a back seat to some of the Grove Farm properties he bought on Kauai last year. Case to give
Grove Farm priority
over latest Kauai purchase
By Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comKukui Grove Shopping Center, which has suffered major termite infestation, and the Grove Farm Golf Course at Puakea, which never has been completed, will take priority over all other projects, according to David Pratt and Allan Smith.
Pratt is president and CEO of Grove Farm and Smith vice president and chief operating officer. Case bought Grove Farm, a 21,600 acre former sugar plantation once managed by his grandfather. Pratt and Smith will hold identical titles with the Lihue Land Co., which oversees Case's former Amfac/JMB property. Both are subsidiaries of Case's Virginia-based Visionary LLC.
The purchase made Case the second-largest landowner on Kauai with about 40,000 acres. Only Gay and Robinson, which owns 51,000 acres, is larger.
The only properties that produce steady revenue at present are the shopping center, the only true shopping mall on Kauai, and the golf course.
There also appears to be no resolution in sight in the continuing dispute over Grove Farm's Mahaulepu property. Pratt said he still wants to see a resort on the beach there; conservationists want it turned into a wilderness area.
Grove Farm does not have the zoning and use permits required to build a hotel. Conservationists don't have the money to buy the land.
On both the Grove Farm and Amfac/JMB properties, Pratt said over the long term he is hoping to find a major crop for the agricultural portions of the new acquisition. Meanwhile, he is talking to farmers and cattle ranchers about leasing portions of the land.
Much of the former Amfac/ JMB property already is zoned residential and commercial and included within the Lihue-Hanamaulu Master Plan.
Pratt said there seems to be no pressing demand for housing, but if a developer wants to build a subdivision in that area Pratt said he may be interested.
Similarly, another portion of the property, between Kuhio Highway and Lihue Airport, is zoned light industrial but lacks infrastructure. Pratt said there are no plans to build an extensive road system or put in utilities but he is not ruling out proposals from individual companies seeking a building site.