The Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort in Waipouli’s Coconut Plantation, recently sold for $13.5 million to Pacifica Companies, may be about to make a complete circle back to its origin as a Holiday Inn. Pacifica owns hotels in California, Arizona, Missouri,
The Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort in Waipouli’s Coconut Plantation, recently sold
for $13.5 million to Pacifica Companies, may be about to make a complete circle
back to its origin as a Holiday Inn.
Pacifica owns hotels in California,
Arizona, Missouri, New York and Texas, including several managed as Holiday Inn
Express properties.
Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort was built in 1978 as a
Holiday Inn and has been managed over the years by Sheraton, as well. It has
been owned since 1986 by Pleasant Travel Service, of Westlake Village,
Calif.
While information was not available Thursday on Pacifica’s choice of
hotel management, a Honolulu real estate broker who specializes in hotel
properties said if the hotel was originally built to be a Holiday Inn, it would
make sense for Holiday Inn to make an offer to manage the property
again.
On Kaua’i, Holiday Inn already manages the Sunspree Resort. Holiday
Inn’s interest in running two resorts here was not immediately
known.
Pacifica, of San Diego, Calif., also owns hotels managed by Best
Western, Courtyard by Marriott, Days Inn & Suites, Comfort Inn and Super
8.
The hotel’s 207 employees will officially lose their jobs in early
December, though the new owner has indicated a willingness to retain most of
the workers. Many of the workers have been with the hotel since it was a
Holiday Inn.
Ron Gilligan, principal broker of R.F. Gilligan Realty of
Honolulu, said Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort’s current owner, Ed Hogan (the sale
is expected to be completed by early December), likely will sell the other
Pleasant Travel Service properties in Hawai’i – on Maui and the Big Island – to
raise funds for a philanthropic foundation he and his wife have
established.
Hogan is Pleasant Travel’s founder, owner and chairman. His
Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays brings around 450,000 visitors a year to the
state.
Gilligan has on other occasions unsuccessfully worked to sell the
property when it was on the market before, including when it was the Sheraton
Coconut Beach Resort before Pleasant Travel Services purchased it.
“I want
to assure the people of Hawai’i and our partners throughout the travel industry
that the pending sale of the Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort in no way diminishes
our commitment to promoting tourism to the island of Kaua’i,” Hogan said. “As
the new owner, Pacifica Companies will maintain the same quality service that
our guests have enjoyed throughout the past 14 years.
“This will be a
tremendous opportunity for Pacifica to expand into the Hawai’i market, and our
wholesale travel group, including Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays and Pleasant
Island Holidays, intends to feature the resort as part of their
inventories.”
The 312-room hotel is on 10.5 acres of land owned by Niu Pia
Farms, a locally based company which owns beachfront land from the Islander on
the Beach up to Kaua’i Kailani.
A Niu Pia Farms shareholder, who wished not
to be identified, said no formal talks had taken place between the new hotel
owner and Niu Pia Farms for sale of the land under the hotel, though informal
talks about the market availability of that land had taken place
before.
The shareholder added that many hotel owners don’t like to purchase
properties on leasehold parcels, as the lease will eventually end and the hotel
owner would have to leave behind all the improvements made to the
property.
The property has meeting rooms, restaurant, lounge, three tennis
courts and a luau pavilion. It underwent a propertywide renovation in 1995 and
guest room and public area improvements last year.
Hogan said that, in
addition to the 450,000 airline seats Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays uses each
year, the company has committed 63,000 new airline seats to Hawai’i next year,
when the company’s new scheduled service between Honolulu and Chicago and New
York begins.
Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort could benefit from the increased
visitor counts Pleasant expects to bring to the islands.
During the past
two decades, the resort has been popular with visiting Hollywood film crews,
hosting cast and crew of “Six Days, Seven Nights,” “The Thorn Birds,” “North,”
“Outbreak,” “Uncommon Valor” and nearly a dozen other productions.
Pleasant
Travel Service owns and operates the Royal Lahaina Resort on Maui and the Royal
Kona Resort on the Big Island. Sister company Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays offers
over 120 other hotels and resorts on six Hawaiian islands.
This year, the
wholesale travel company expects to send over 450,000 travelers to Hawai’i,
Mexico, Tahiti, the South Pacific and the Orient.
Hogan and his family have
undertaken many philanthropic projects in Hawai’i, including scholarships, the
Kodak Hula Show and assistance programs for the disadvantaged.
Pacifica
owns 29 hotels with over 2,600 rooms.
Staff writer Paul C. Curtis can
be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) and pcurtis@pulitzer.net
