Hana hotel ready to unveil new look
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
HANA, Maui — More than $5.5 million in renovations have helped revive the luster that was faded from the Hotel Hana-Maui in recent years.
Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser
Workers are putting the finishing touches on the first phase of the overhaul promised when Passport Resorts LLC bought the 66-room luxury hideaway from Meridian Financial Resources LLC a year ago.
Doug Chang, general manager of the Hotel Hana-Maui, shows off the newly tiled swimming pool, which was among more than $5.5 million of renovations during the first phase of improvements to the 66-room hotel.
Upgrades include refurbished interiors in the resort's Sea Ranch Cottages, a remodeled main dining room, lobby and bar, a redesigned garden pool pavilion and the addition of new amenities and services.
"We're excited about the new Hotel Hana-Maui and are thrilled to again offer an intimate, world-class luxury resort," said Peter Heinemann, one the the principal owners of Passport Resorts. "Hana is a magical place. We believe the resort captures that magic."
The hotel's history dates to 1946, when San Francisco entrepreneur Paul Fagan established the six-room Ka'uiki Inn. Fagan also purchased Hana sugar plantation lands that he turned into the Hana Ranch. Ka'uiki Inn, later known as the Hana Ranch Hotel, gradually expanded through the years, with extensive remodeling taking place in the 1980s.
The hotel, Hana's largest employer, has changed hands four times in the past 13 years. Texas-based Rosewood Properties Co. sold it in 1989 to a Japanese company, Sekitei Kaihatsu, for $63 million. That company put it on the market as early as 1995, but didn't find a buyer until 1999 when Meridian Financial Resources, a Chicago-based investment group took it over.
Meridian sold it to Passport Resorts last June.
Now that Passport Resorts has completed the first phase of renovations, it is planning construction of a health spa starting in January, as well as the addition of retail space and improvements to the resort's auxiliary Hana Town Center, which includes the Hana Ranch Store and Hana Ranch Restaurant.
When it's all said and done, costs are expected to reach $10 million, said Doug Chang, the hotel's general manager.
In recent decades the hotel struggled against increasing luxury competition in Ka'anapali and Wailea, and the physical plant deteriorated during the economic doldrums of the 1990s.
More recently, the hotel was hit hard by the aftermath of Sept. 11, the dengue fever outbreak and road construction on the Hana Highway. Ironically, having fewer guests made conditions better suited for the renovations.
"Construction and hospitality never mix," said Chang, who was hired in November after managing the Kaua'i Marriott Resort and Beach Club, and the Hanalei Bay Resort.
San Francisco-based Passport Resorts also manages the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, Calif., and Jean-Michel Cousteau's Fiji Islands Resorts, which both cater to well-heeled visitors seeking solitude in a retreat-like setting.
At Hana, the spa will be constructed within an existing building.
"We're trying very hard to honor the traditional healing energies of Hana," Chang said.
The refurbished Sea Ranch Cottages are representative of traditional plantation houses. The designer/interior decorator was Hunton Conrad of Maui.
The resort, the only Hawai'i member of the prestigious Small Luxury Hotels of the World, sits on 67 oceanfront acres on the outskirts of this remote East Maui town. The seclusion is intensified by rooms that contain no televisions, clocks or radios.
"People appreciate it," Chang said. "It forces you to focus on what's important without any distractions. You start to listen and hear things you haven't noticed in a long time."
Like the ample rain showers that make Hana so lush.
"Where else can you get rained on and be happy?" said Shari Lind of Danville, Calif., who, along with her fiance, Philip Scott, were in lounge chairs during a midday shower last week.
The hotel is offering a special package to Honolulu residents with prices ranging from $195 for Bay Cottages to $275 per night for the Sea Ranch Cottages. There is a two-night minimum. Rates are based on double occupancy and valid through September.
