WAILUA — The embattled 350-room Coco Palms hotel development is facing a new legal challenge.
Kaua‘i community group I Ola Wailuanui filed a lawsuit last month against the state Board of Land and Natural Resources and the developers behind the project, arguing recently renewed BLNR permits granted to a defunct LLC without the typically required environmental impact statements. The suit calls for an environmental assessment of the area.
“We want to address the process and the way things get done in Hawai‘i as it relates to leases and land issues. Those are basically capacity issues,” said former County Council Member Mason Chock, a member of the group filing suit.
“The bigger question is — is the use of those lands they are so readily giving out in accordance with our plans as a community?” said Chock. “We have to stop perpetuating this disservice to our future by not having our board better equipped to make decisions and manage our resources.”
At an October meeting, the BLNR renewed three permits to a corporate entity named Coco Palms Venture LLC, granting them the right to use three parcels of state-owned lands in their planned resort development.
The Coco Palms property has been owned by a shifting collection of similarly named LLCs, including Coco Palms Venture. In 2016, the BLNR canceled permits granted to Coco Palms Venture to transfer them to new owners, the failed project led by developers Tyler Green and Chad Waters under the name Coco Palms Hui LLC.
The title is now held by an corporate entity named RP21 Coco Palms LLC, led by the Utah-based Reef Capital Partners. It is being transferred to a new development team led by Utah-based Victor Kimball and Mitchell Burton. The new owners could not be reached to discuss the lawsuit on Friday.
The BLNR October meeting report said their paperwork would be updated to include the new ownership. The report also notes they would continue to explore the possibility of selling the lease at public auction. The board further increased the rent on the parcels by 3 percent, in line with their action on most other leases. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said it would not comment on pending litigation.
A cultural center
Originally built in the 1940s, the iconic Coco Palms site operated as a hotel until it was destroyed in Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992. Since that time, it has seen several attempts at development as a new resort — all of which sputtered out before getting off the ground.
I Ola Wailuanui hopes to buy the property from its current owners, who have expressed a willingness to entertain offers. They intend to build a low environmental impact Native Hawaiian cultural center on the site.
Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies at Kaua‘i Community College Puali‘ili‘imaikalani Rossi-Fukino, a member of the group, advocated for an approach that takes the cultural significance of the area into account.
“Wailua is without a doubt one of the most significant (sites) on the island in terms of its cultural, political, religious and social influences on the rest of the islands,” said Rossi-Fukino. “There are so many stories that are focused on Wailua, and a lot of cultural heroes who have some sort of ancestral ties to Wailua.”
The Coco Palms property features nearby he‘iau (temples), a significant birthing site known as Holoholoku, iwi kupuna (ancestral burial sites), loko i‘a (fishponds) and sites previously used for navigation and astronomy. Several of these important historical locations are located on the state parcels addressed in the lawsuit.
“Part of our vision is restoring cultural sites that haven’t been used properly in generations, but still can be restored and used in the way they were meant to be used,” said Rossi-Fukino. “I know Kaua‘i needs this type of community center we are envisioning. Having a cultural center there that can be used for generations, to give people the ability to learn things that our kupuna, or ancestors, wanted us to know.”
Making this vision a reality will be a Herculean task.
The property was most recently purchased at auction for $21 million, and may be valued significantly higher. The group estimates the total cost needed to develop and maintain the property as a cultural center could be in the $50 million range.
In a Facebook post in late October, the group reported it has raised $200,000 from community-driven donations and are attempting to confirm anchor donors.
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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.
