Hawaii developer Stanford Carr will develop a $300 million golf resort community with a four-star hotel on the site of the former Makaha Resort for landowner Pacific Links International as part of a joint venture that aims to create some 500 jobs for residents of the Leeward Oahu community.

The resort master plan for the property, which was acquired by Pacific Links last year through foreclosure, was developed with members of the community, Pacific Links and Honolulu-based Stanford Carr Development said in a joint statement released on New Year’s Day.

Pacific Links initially planned to spend some $200 million to develop a 483-unit resort with 250 hotels rooms, 88 luxury villas and 145 luxury time-share units, Pacific Links board advisor Micah Kane, then the company’s chief operating officer, told PBN in May.

The Friday announcement did not detail the number of units now planned, but did mention the resort’s golf course, the former Makaha West Golf Club, which is undergoing a $30 million redesign by PGA Tour legend Greg Norman, who’s known as The Shark, and a four-star hotel “focused on providing a Neighbor Island experience on Oahu.”

The Makaha Valley resort property was initially developed by the late Hawaii financier Chinn Ho in the late 1960s, and was managed by Sheraton until 1999.

It’s located about 12 miles up the Leeward Coast from Ko Olina Resort — home of Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, and where the Four Seasons Resort Oahu is opening in April— and about 35 miles from Downtown Honolulu and Waikiki, the state’s main resort district. It is more than 50 miles from Turtle Bay Resort, the only resort on Oahu’s North Shore.

“As the last of four master-planned destination resort communities on the Island of Oahu, Mākaha Valley has an incredible opportunity to retain its rugged beauty while providing a welcoming and eco-friendly environment for residents and visitors,” Carr, president of Stanford Carr Development, said in the statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with the community to create a neighborhood that everyone is proud to call home.”

An integral part of the Makaha Valley master plan is to restore the watershed and native environment while creating jobs for a community with a high unemployment and poverty rates. The site’s former hotel, the Makaha Resort & Golf Club, closed in late 2011 after Canada-based Northwynd Properties Ltd. acquired the property, leaving 95 employees out of work. Northwynd had plans to upgrade the property and convert the hotel into time-share units, but was unable to secure financing.

“Our hopes and aspirations for the Makaha ahupuaa reflect the vision this community has expressed to us, which is to strengthen the area overall, both now and into the future,” Kane said in the statement. “We consider this a three-way partnership with the Makaha Community, Pacific Links and Stanford Carr, bringing together the team needed to make this joint vision for Makaha Valley a reality through a very local perspective.”

Janis L. Magin
Managing Editor
Pacific Business News