STAR-BULLETIN FILE
Hilton has begun to convert six floors of its Kalia Tower in Waikiki into timeshare units.
Hilton to sell
timeshare units
in Kalia Tower
About one-third of the hotel rooms in the Hilton Kalia Tower, 138 out of the total of 453, will be rebuilt into 72 timeshare units, a mix of luxurious studio and condominium-style one-bedroom units.
The six-floor Hilton Grand Vacations Club will open in December, said Hilton Grand Vacations Co., the vacation-ownership arm of Hilton Hotels Corp.
The timeshare space occupies all of floors 12 through 18 (there is no 13th floor) and the rooms on those floors are closed for the conversion renovations.
Antoine Dagot, president of the Orlando, Fla.-headquartered timeshare business, said Hilton Grand Vacations had a "spectacular" response to its first timeshare on the Hilton Hawaiian Village property, the former Hilton Lagoon Tower, which opened in January 2001.
Preopening sales will begin in December. Prices were not available for the timeshare project. Such projects usually sell in one- or two-week increments and buyers are free to trade their time slots with other club members.
Hilton began talking about working some timeshare units into the Kalia Tower prior to its opening in May 2001. Mold problems forced the tower to close in July 2002, but it reopened nearly two months ago.
Hilton Grand Vacations Co. operates two timeshare clubs, the Hilton Club and Hilton Grand Vacations Club, with a total of 63,000 members.
The Kalia Tower operation will be the 25th operated by Hilton Grand Vacations in resorts in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and Britain.
