Posted on: Saturday, January 12, 2002

Kamehameha Schools may sell land to club in Virginia

Associated Press

The Kamehameha Schools is looking at selling its land under an exclusive golf club outside Washington, D.C.

The trust has held preliminary talks with members of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, who want to acquire the fee interest in the 18-hole course.

The club operates under a 40-year lease with the trust, but holds an option to acquire the fee. The club obtained the long lease and fee option in settlement of its lawsuit contending that a fee price set in 1994 was too high.

The club in northern Virginia is considered one of the most prestigious golf facilities in the Washington area.

The proposed sale was detailed in a recent internal memo listing the trust's underperforming assets. The estate is looking to sell off many of its money-losing Mainland ventures, which were initiated by the estate's previous trustees during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The estate's current board and chief executive officer Hamilton McCubbin have initiated a series of reforms in the trust's investment policies in response to investigations by the state Attorney General's Office and the IRS.