Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort sold for $13.5 million

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