Princeville Associates LLC – Princeville Resort’s new owners – have named Jay Furfaro as the General Manager for operations at the resort. Furfaro has served as a County Councilman since 2002 and has a long history with local and international
Princeville Associates LLC – Princeville Resort’s new owners – have named Jay Furfaro as the General Manager for operations at the resort.
Furfaro has served as a County Councilman since 2002 and has a long history with local and international hotel operations and community service. Asked by The Garden Island as to whether he would step down from his council seat once he joins Princeville, Furfaro said last night, “I don’t see any changes through 2006.”
The $200 million-plus sale of the 9,000-acre resort by Princeville Corporation to Princeville Associates LLC is slated to close in early March. Princeville Associates consists of a Honolulu-based investment consortium known as Hawaii Land Development Corporation, and Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley investment and credit services.
The Princeville Hotel will continue to be managed by Kelly Hoen under the Starwood hotel management corporation.
Also named as part of the new leadership group for what is being called the Princeville Operating Company are Mamo Cummings, who will be the Director of Resort Marketing, and Eric Knutzen, who will be the Director of Finance.
The Princeville sale includes the Prince and Makai golf courses, Princeville Management Company and the Princeville Shopping Center.
Heading the deal is Honolulu-based developer Jeffrey R. Stone who purchased the Ko Olina Resort on O‘ahu in 1998.
“We are very pleased to have Jay join us,” said Stone, who is President and CEO of the Resort Group, a principal of Princeville Associates.
“We believe it’s so important to have a strong local team in place to lead and serve our resort operations, from our employees to our visitors, residents and island community,” Stone said in a prepared statement. We have many exciting and positive plans ahead for
Princeville, and we know that Jay and his team will make them happen.”
“Jeff and his Associates have a great understanding of and intentions for Princeville, and I think that’s evident in the team they have put together. We all have deep roots on Kaua‘i and because of that, we will ensure that our company is a superb community partner, employer, and visitor host,” said Furfaro.
Princeville Corporation, which has owned the resort property since 1979, began trading as a public company listed on the NASDAQ in 1984. It was taken private by the Australian-based Qintex Corporation in 1987, and acquired out of bankruptcy in 1990 by three Japanese shareholders led by leaders of beverage-giant Suntory Ltd., which owns 51 percent of the resort. The remainder is owned by diversified trading company Mitsui, and banking company Nippon Shimpan.
Furfaro was most recently the Executive Director for Leadership Kaua‘i, a non-profit leadership development organization. Furfaro also worked with Sheraton Hotels and Resorts in the 1980s as Hotel Manager of the Sheraton Princeville and the Sheraton Kaua‘i Hotel at Po‘ipu.
He began his hotel management career on Kaua‘i as the manager of the Hanalei Plantation Hotel at Princeville. The hotel was developed by Lyle and Grace Guslander, the re-nowned developers and owners of the Coco Palms Resort at Wailua.
Furfaro is a past President of the Kaua‘i Historical Society, and has an active interest in the history of the island. He grew up on the Waianae Coast of O‘ahu and was a top-rated surfer in his youth. He trained in hotel management at the resort in Makaha Valley prior to moving to Kaua‘i in the late 1960s.
“Mamo was raised in Kapa‘a, Eric has family in Anahola, and I have been on Kaua‘i for three and a half decades, and a resident of Princeville since 1975,” Furfaro said in a prepared statement. “We are all eager to enhance Princeville’s sense of place and create an environment that benefits our employees, customers, residents, and of course, our island public.”
Cummings left her position as President of the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce last year to run as a Republican for the North Kaua‘i/East Kaua‘i seat in the State House of Representatives. She was defeated by State Rep. Mina Morita, a Democrat and incumbent candidate from Hanalei.
Cummings served as an Administrative Project Manager with the County of Kauai’s Office of Economic Development. She worked developing the West Kaua‘i Technology and Visitors Center at Waimea and other county projects during the rebuilding of Kaua‘i following Hurricane ‘Iniki.
Knutzen served as the Director of Information Technology at the County of Kaua‘i, and before that, was the County’s Deputy Director of Finance.
“In his two-year tenure, Eric Knutzen has helped the County of Kaua‘i make significant strides in improving services through utilization of information technology,” said Mayor Bryan Baptiste Thursday. “We have prided ourselves on hiring the best and the brightest to serve the Kaua‘i community, knowing that someone of Eric’s caliber would be in high demand with other organizations. While we will certainly miss Eric, we wish him all the best in his new career and challenges.”
Knutzen said he sees Kaua‘i benefiting from The Resort Group’s track record in resort management and community development in West O‘ahu.
“I can tell you that we look forward to collaborating with the existing employees and the community to make the best possible decisions for Princeville and Kaua‘i,” Stone said.
Stone said Furfaro, along with members of the ownership group, will begin meeting with Princeville stakeholders and will continue to do so over the next few months as ideas are reviewed and plans and programs are developed.
Cummings begins work this week, while Furfaro and Knutzen officially assume their new roles in mid-February.
The sale of the resort includes the 252-room Princeville Hotel, the Prince and Makai golf courses and clubhouse facilities, the Princeville Tennis Club and Pro Shop, the Princeville Health Club and Spa, the Princeville Shopping Center, and other land holdings in the area.
- Chris Cook, Editor, can be reached at ccook@pulitzer. net or 245-3681 (ext. 227).
