WAILUA — A shuttle running between the hotel and its restaurant, rooms starting around $200 a night and the name of the operator expected within two weeks.
Coco Palms Hui, LLC Principals Chad Waters and Tyler Greene shared a few more details on the long-awaited rebuild of the historic hotel during a recent Kapaa Business Association meeting, and those details call for restoring four hotel restaurants around the resort, including the Seashell Restaurant separated from the hotel’s main location by Kuhio Highway.
The Honolulu-based investment group’s most recent plans also call for the restoration of all the bungalows and redevelopment of 363 hotel rooms on the property, which has been shuttered since Hurricane Iniki struck the island on Sept. 11, 1992.
“Pretty much everybody who you talk to has a story they can share — they worked there, members of their family got married there, or they even dined there,” Waters told the group of more than 60 business leaders. “Our objective is to restore the Coco Palms Resort and restore the culture there for future generations.”
Unlike previous plans from previous owners to have a suspended pedestrian bridge connect the hotel to the Seashell Restaurant, Waters said he and other developers are considering a plan to have a shuttle run continuously between the two locations.
To address future traffic through the area, the hotel entrance along Kuamoo Road will have to be located farther up the road from the Kuhio Highway intersection, Waters said.
The Apana Road entrance from Haleilio Road, he added, will also have to be redone.
The investment company, Waters said, is in the process of submitting building and demolition permits with the county’s Planning Department and could break ground as early as this year, if project plans are approved in time.
In all, Coco Palms Hui investors have two years to secure their building permits before the last remaining Iniki Ordinance, those approved to expedite the permitting process for hurricane damaged property, ends.
The Kauai County Council approved the ordinance extension in December.
Approving these building permits, he said, is also critical to transferring ownership of the hotel from Prudential Investment, which took over the property last year from previous developer, Coco Palms Ventures, LLC.
During County Council hearings on the Iniki Ordinance in December, Coco Palms Hui developers announced they were considering either Starwood Hotels and Resorts or Hyatt Hotels and Resorts as the hotel’s operator.
A formal announcement on the investment group’s choice, Waters said, will be made public within the next two weeks.
“We understand that this is a journey and there are a lot of questions that we still need to go through,” Greene said.
When completed, hotel room rates are expected to start around $200 a night. About 1,800 direct and indirect local jobs are anticipated to be created by the hotel during and after construction, according to an economic study commissioned by Coco Palms Hui.
Kauai Chamber of Commerce President Randy Francisco said those jobs will especially be helpful for residents living near the resort, an area that has one of the highest unemployment rates on the island.
“I think workers may not be much of a concern but getting them properly trained and having the cultural understanding and the stewardship is what you want to get across,” Francisco said.
Continuing tradition and the legacy of the historic hotel is a goal of the developers, as well as for some locals who remember the hotel during its heyday.
George Costa grew up in the shadow of the Coco Palms Resort while he was living in Wailua Houselots.
He eventually got a job there after college and worked alongside kupuna like John “Big John” Pakahea Kauo, Kimo Keawe and Grace Guslander
Costa said he’s looking forward to a rebuild, but can still remember the hotel’s golden years — the iconic torch lighting ceremonies, the nightly cocktail parties and the time he got to meet Dustin Hoffman.
“There’s so many things, so many stories, I could go on and on,” Costa said. “But I’m hoping that those types of events and culture will be recreated again because it was so special. Even with Big John’s passing, I just feel there is an opportunity, while some of us are still around, to impart that knowledge and history to the younger generation.”
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428 or dmoriki@thegardenisland.com. Follow him on Twitter at @darinmoriki.
