The Timeshare Beat
May 8, 2002
HONOLULU, HI -- In what Princeville Corp. carefully called "conceptual" talks, with sale terms still
under negotiation, officials of Starwood Hotels & Resorts last month met with Princeville residents and Kauai
County officials to talk about plans for a proposed 370-unit timeshare resort on the North Shore of that Hawaiian
Island.
This would be the second timeshare resort for Starwood in Hawaii, which is currently building the Westin Ka‘anapali
Ocean Resort Villas in Ka`anapali, Maui.
No official announcement of the project has been made but Princeville Corp. seemed cautiously positive about the
deal, with groundbreaking tentatively set for sometime next year.
The proposed location for the new resort is known as Lot 25, an 18.5-acre site on a bluff overlooking Anini Beach and tucked between the Princeville Golf Course and the Princeville Makai Golf Course. There is a condominium development on the south side of the property.
Set aside for hotel use more than 30 years ago when Princeville Corp. was formed, the site is zoned for either 740 hotel rooms or 370 timeshare units. Access to the property is by Wyllie Road, a local two-lane road named for R.S. Wyllie, a Scotsman who founded Princeville Ranch in the 1850s and who served as foreign minister to King Kamehameha IV. There are no plans to build additional roads to the site, which would almost certainly raise protests among local residents who like things the way they are. Instead, the present road will probably be widened by a couple of feet. The famous and much-photographed tree-lined carriage path dating back to Princeville Ranch days will not be disturbed.
Rumors late last year said that Starwood and Marriott were in a bidding war for a piece of property in Princeville, and also that Disney was looking. But nothing could be confirmed, and the exact location of the property in question was unknown.
If the project proceeds, the new resort will add to other timeshare resorts on Kauai that are under construction
or planned to begin soon.
On the South Shore, in the Poipu Resort area, Marriott Waiohai Beach Club is nearing completion and selling briskly.
Also in Poipu, Alexander & Baldwin recently announced a joint venture partnership for its long-awaited Kukui`Ula
Bay Resort, a 1,045-acre master-planned project with zoning for up to 700 hotel rooms and timeshare units, 3,000
single-family and multi-family residences, an 18-hole golf course, and commercial centers. There is no starting
date for this yet, and the identity of possible timeshare developers for the two timeshare-zoned areas has not
been determined.
Kauai holds the distinction of having more timeshare units than any of the other Hawaiian islands, with 1,599 timeshare
units last year representing 37.2 percent of the state's total timeshare inventory, and over 200 more timeshare
units under construction at Marriott's Waiohai Beach Club.
Starwood owned or managed hotels and resorts in Hawaii include:
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