Starwood considering LIHUE >> Officials of the Starwood Corp. have been meeting with Princeville residents and Kauai County officials to discuss plans for a major new 370-unit time-share resort on Kauai's north shore.
Kauai time-share resort
Meetings are being held with
Princeville residents and
Kauai County officialsBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comThere has been no official announcement of the project, which does not yet have a name, and landowner Princeville Corp. has been careful to call the plan "conceptual" and the sale terms as "under negotiation."
But at the same time, they said groundbreaking is tentatively set for about a year from now. The time-share units would be built in phases.
A meeting was held with owners of neighboring condominiums yesterday, and another was scheduled for today.
Starwood is one of the largest resort companies in the world, with 746 hotels in 80 countries. Among the chains it owns are Sheraton and Westin. The Princeville Hotel is managed by Starwood but owned by Princeville Corp.
Known simply as Lot 25, the 18.5-acre site is on a section of the bluff overlooking Anini Beach. It is bounded on the east by the Princeville Golf Course and on the west by the Princeville Makai Golf Course. A condominium development is on the south side of the property.
The land was set aside for hotel use when Princeville Corp. was formed more than 30 years ago. Kauai Planning Director Dee Crowell, who said he has met with Starwood representatives, said the site is zoned for up to 370 time-share units or 740 hotel rooms. It will require many other county permits, Crowell noted.
Access to the property is by a single two-lane road, Wyllie Road, named for R.S. Wyllie, a Scotsman who founded Princeville Ranch in the 1850s and who served as foreign minister to King Kamehameha IV. The ranch was named for the king's son, Prince Albert.
Stephanie Kauahine-Reid, Princeville Corp. spokeswoman, said there are no plans to build additional roads to the site. She said Wyllie Road will be widened by about two feet. A much-photographed, tree-lined carriage path dating to Princeville Ranch days will not be disturbed, she said.
The property has had a number of prospective buyers in the past few years, with Walt Disney Co. among the most recent. Princeville Corp. has not discussed why none of those deals was completed.
If Starwood goes ahead with the planned resort, it will be the latest of several on Kauai either under construction or planned to begin soon. Almost all will be time shares.
In Poipu the Marriott Waiohai is nearing completion. Badly damaged by Hurricane Iniki in 1992, the remains of the previous structure were demolished, and the new 230-unit time-share complex is being built from the ground up.
Also in Poipu, Alexander & Baldwin Inc. recently obtained zoning for 700 time-share units and 200 hotel rooms. The project has been on hold for more than a decade, and no groundbreaking date has been set.
On Kauai's west side, Kikiaola Land Co., owned by the Faye family, recently received county approval to expand its Waimea Plantation Resort in Waimea. It eventually will include 150 cottages, all of them renovated or replica plantation camp homes.
Also on the west side, Robinson Family Partners, which owns Gay & Robinson sugar company, has been obtaining state and county permits to build 250 cottages to be named Kapalawai Resort on 170 acres on what was the family's original homestead at Makaweli.
The only planned resort that has foundered recently was a rebuilding of the Coco Palms Resort in Kapaa as time shares. The project was abandoned when the development company lost its financing last fall.
The Coco Palms, once among the state's most luxurious resorts, is the only hotel destroyed by Hurricane Iniki that remains in ruins. It is best known as the setting for much of the Elvis Presley movie "Blue Hawaii."