Ko 'Olina getting oceanfront restaurant
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
The developer of Ko 'Olina Resort & Marina has begun construction of an oceanfront restaurant, athletic club and meeting facility at the master-planned resort community.
The $6 million, two-phase project called Ko 'Olina Ocean Club is being built between Lagoon No. 4 and a 270-slip marina that opened in March. It is scheduled for completion by the beginning of next year, according to developer Ko 'Olina Co. LLC.
A $2 million first phase, comprising meeting rooms and a garden, broke ground this week and should be finished in July. The second phase, with the restaurant and fitness center, should commence construction in the next three months and be open in January.
Jeff Stone, managing partner of Ko 'Olina Co., said there is demand for both a "mini-conference center" for meetings of fewer than 200 people, as well as a restaurant on the ocean to complement available meeting rooms and dining options at the J.W. Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa hotel.
"Oceanfront restaurants are really hard to find, and Ko 'Olina needs one," he said. The restaurant, according to Stone, will be privately operated and resemble a cross between Duke's and the Chart House.
Stone said the overall 25,000-square-foot complex will serve as a yacht club for boat owners as well as an Outrigger Canoe Club-like amenity.
Ko 'Olina Co., a partnership of local investors and Ohio-based National Housing Corp., first acquired much of what had been a stalled and mostly undeveloped West O'ahu resort in 1998. Since then, the firm, alone or with other partners, purchased the Ihilani Resort & Spa hotel and golf course.
Last year, Ko 'Olina Co. sold 28 acres to Marriott, which expects to begin building the first phase of a 750-unit time-share project next month.
A unit of Canada-based Brookfield Properties Corp., which also bought a large tract of Ko 'Olina property, recently broke ground on a first phase of 18 townhouse units as part of Coconut Plantations.
