Posted on: Thursday, June 28, 2001

Grove Farm to expand Puakea Golf Course

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua‘i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Grove Farm, rescued from financial trouble when it was purchased six months ago by AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case, is moving ahead with plans to build up Puakea Golf Course to its full 18 holes by the end of next year.

Grove Farm Chief Operating Officer Allan Smith said work on the golf course, which now has 10 holes, should begin this summer. The course, which includes a driving range, has been operating at its nonstandard size but was designed as an 18-hole course.

It is surrounded by residential communities developed by Grove Farm and by the Kukui Grove Shopping Center and Pu'ali Stream valley.

Construction on the links was halted after Grove Farm, which abandoned sugar in the 1970s in favor of real estate development, ran into financial difficulties in the wake of 1992's Hurricane 'Iniki.

Smith said golf course designer Robin Nelson, who drew the original configuration at Puakea and whose other Hawai'i projects include the Mauna Lani golf course on the Big Island, has been brought back to design the updated Puakea links.

Although the course originally was designed to straddle the Pu'ali Stream, its new alignment will keep it entirely on the north side of the waterway, he said. Smith also said most of the permits for the project are already in place, but there will be some amendments required for the alterations to the original design.

The Hawai'i-born Case has expressed an affinity for Grove Farm, started by George Norton Wilcox as a sugar plantation nearly 140 years ago. Case's grandfather served the company for 40 years as chief financial officer, and his father, Dan Case, grew up on Grove Farm land and is an attorney for the company.

Although neither Steve Case nor the company has confirmed the size of his investment, he is believed to have initially committed roughly $101 million to Grove Farm, including $26 million to buy the stock, $61 million in acquired bank debt, $13 million for renovation of the Kukui Grove Shopping Center, and $1 million for water development. The cost of the golf course expansion presumably is in addition to that.