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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Tuesday, August 6, 2002

Moloka'i's Kaluakoi to reopen golf course

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

The new owner of the shuttered Kaluakoi Resort on Moloka'i plans to spend about $6 million to reopen the island's only 18-hole golf course, starting with the first nine holes in November.

Molokai Ranch Ltd., which in December paid $9 million for the golf course, 140 hotel rooms and 4,000 acres of land around Maunaloa, said the course is being repaired to help attract buyers for 42 fee-simple residential lots recently listed for sale as well as to restore an amenity for area residents.

Peter Nicholas, president and chief executive officer of Molokai Ranch, said work to begin fixing the course's irrigation system began in June. It will cost about $200,000 to ready the first nine holes for play.

A new supply of brackish water needs to be developed and other upgrades made to reopen the rest of the course at a total cost of about $6 million. Nicholas said the second half of the project should be completed in about 18 months.

The resort's previous owner, Tokyo Kosan Ltd. subsidiary Kukui (Molokai) Inc., closed the Ted Robinson-designed course, along with the hotel, in January 2001.

Nicholas said Molokai Ranch is considering several development options for the hotel, including finding a partner to revitalize the 25-year-old townhouse-style hotel as a condominium, hotel or timeshare property.

Molokai Ranch, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Brierley Investments Ltd., owns 53,000 acres on Moloka'i. The ranch entered the tourism business in 1997 and operates a 22-room lodge, three 40-unit campsites with tent-like cabins, and recreational activities.

The Kaluakoi was developed as the Sheraton Molokai Hotel in 1975 by a subsidiary of the Louisiana Land & Exploration Co., and opened in 1977.