Foreclosure sale delayed for Big Island property

HILO >> The Sept. 14 foreclosure sale of a Kona property carrying a $3.8 million delinquent tax bill was postponed for two months after county officials agreed to meet with the property owners next month, a county official said.

At issue is the 445-acre property formerly owned by Nansay Hawaii near the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park north of Kailua-Kona, commonly known as "Pine Trees."

The county's administration will meet with Nansay Hawaii representatives Aug. 15 in Mayor Harry Kim's office to discuss the sale, Hawaii County Finance Director William Takaba said Wednesday.

Kennedy-Wilson International, a Beverly Hills mortgage company, assumed ownership of the property following Nansay's bankruptcy in 1995.

The land once was scheduled for resort and golf course development. It remains undeveloped.

ResortQuest profits up 6.6 percent in quarter

ResortQuest International Inc., the Memphis, Tenn.-based parent of Hawaii's Aston Hotels & Resorts and operator of several dozen other resort properties on the mainland and in Canada, today reported a second-quarter profit of $3 million, or 16 cents a share, up 6.6 percent from a profit of $2.8 million, or 15 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

The company's total gross lodging revenues (before deducting fees paid to property owners) were $107.4 million, up 10.5 percent from $97.2 million in the year-earlier period. Lodging revenues in its Hawaii properties dipped 1.6 percent, to just under $35 million from $35.5 million a year earlier.

ResortQuest's Hawaii occupancy averaged 71.3 percent in the latest quarter, down 4.8 percentage points from 76.1 percent in the second quarter of last year. Its average daily room rate in Hawaii went up 8.3 percent, to $112.13 from $103.57.

Thanks to new management contracts picked up by Aston, ResortQuest has 5,743 rooms in Hawaii, up 7.9 percent from 5,324 in the same quarter a year ago.

ResortQuest stock was down $2.10 to $8.95 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

[TAKING NOTICE]

Promotions

>> Leah Chin has been named spa director of Spa Moana at the Hyatt Regency Maui. She will be responsible for operations at the facility and supervision of 45 spa personnel. Chin was a sales manager at the hotel before joining Spa Moana.

>> D. Keola Lloyd has been named manager in the Office of the Beneficiaries at The Estate of James Campbell. He will serve as a liaison between the estate and its beneficiaries. Lloyd has been employed with Campbell Estate since 1991.

On the board

>> Norm Abramson has joined the board of NetEnterprise. The developer of the wireless data network ALOHANet, Abramson has ties to technology companies and the West Coast venture capital community. He is an author, consultant and co-founder of the Pacific Telecommunications Conference and the Pacific Telecommunications Council. NetEnterprise is a networking and Internet hosting company.