The Japanese owner of three golf courses on Kaua’i, Oahu and Maui plans to close them and fire their 167 employees by the end of March, officials said. Officials with Tokyo-based Sports Shinko on Friday notified the state Department of
The Japanese owner of three golf courses on Kaua’i, Oahu and Maui plans to close them and fire their 167 employees by the end of March, officials said.
Officials with Tokyo-based Sports Shinko on Friday notified the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations that they plan to close the Kiahuna Golf Club near Po’ipu on Kaua’i and the Mililani (Oahu) and Pukalani (Maui) courses after March 27.
An employee at Kiahuna who said he is a manager said Saturday that employees at the Po’ipu-area course have been given notice, but he wouldn’t say how many. No one else would be available for comment until Monday, he said.
Satoshi Kinoshita, executive vice president of Sports Shinko, declined to discuss whether the company was talking to interested buyers.
Sports Shinko put two of the clubs up for sale early last year – Pukalani Country Club, on the slopes of Maui’s Haleakala, and the Kiahuna Golf Club, near Po’ipu.
Sports Shinko acquired the courses during the Japanese investment boom in Hawai’i during the late 1980s.
The company primarily operates golf courses in Japan, but also owns the Queen Kapiolani Hotel, Ocean Resort Hotel Waikiki, La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., and Grenelefe Golf & Tennis Resort in Orlando, Fla.
Sports editor Mike Aldax contributed to this report.
