Posted on: Monday, May 14, 2001

Resort will add 120 homes

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Sand Island-based homebuilder Armstrong Builders Ltd. has purchased 11 acres of property at Ko Olina Resort & Marina to build 120 single-family homes targeted to local buyers. A purchase price was not disclosed.

The project, scheduled for construction early next year, will be the second residential development to be established at the revived master-planned resort in West O'ahu.

Earlier this year, a Canadian homebuilder, Brookfield Properties, Corp., started construction on a first phase of 18 townhouse units as part of Coconut Plantations, a planned community of 270 townhomes being marketed as second homes to visitors.

Other projects at Ko Olina include 750 timeshare units being built in phases by Marriott International, a year-old 270-slip marina and an oceanfront restaurant, athletic club and meeting facility that recently broke ground.

The Armstrong homes will be two- and three-bedroom residences priced from the low-$300,000 to mid-$400,000 range. Sales are scheduled to begin later this year.

The project, called Kai Lani at Ko Olina (Hawai'i), is located at the entrance of the resort. It is separated from the ocean by about 150 yards of park area that is being redone.

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 resort in 1998. Since then, the firm, alone or with other partners, has purchased the Ihilani Resort & Spa hotel and golf course as well as attracted other developers to expand the resort.

Ko Olina resort was envisioned in the late 1980s by local developer Herbert Horita as a $3 billion world-class self-contained resort/ residential community.

Original plans included 11 hotels, 5,000 residential units, two golf courses and luxury condos. Horita and partner Kumagai Gumi Co., a Japanese construction company, broke ground in 1986. They completed the Ihilani, golf course and some condos before Japanese financiers pulled out and the project stalled in the early 1990s.

Bob Armstrong, president of Armstrong Builders, said the new housing will target kama'aina buyers who want nearby resort amenities like the golf course, marina, restaurants and beach.

"We think that we're going to have a real strong appeal to the local market," he said.

Armstrong Builders has developed the Golf Club Estates at Waikele as well as several Windward O'ahu projects. The company also developed Ko Olina Marina.

Andrew Gomes can be reached by phone at 525-8065, or by e-mail at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.