Resort firm to drum up Hawai'i investment

By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer

ResortQuest International Inc. is launching a campaign to team Mainland investors with Hawai'i government and business leaders in an effort to increase business activity and create jobs in the state's travel and tourism industries.

Memphis-based ResortQuest, a resort rental property and hotel management company, is the parent company of Aston Hotels & Resorts and Maui Condos and Homes. Its Hawai'i holdings — 6,000 units in 34 resort properties — make up 30 percent of its total inventory, employ 2,000 people and account for more than 30 percent of the company's total revenue.

As tourism to Hawai'i has faltered since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the company has experienced the same downturn as the rest of the industry.

But David Levine, chairman and chief executive of ResortQuest, said the campaign — called "Hawaii Means Business" — is designed to help the entire state, not just the tourism industry.

"This isn't a tourist campaign," Levine said. "This is an investment campaign."

Levine said the goal is to attract investment to revive entire areas — likely starting with Waikiki. "It's the only thing, in my opinion, that's really going to help us on a long-term basis," he said.

Levine, who did not have estimates of how much investment the campaign might draw to the Islands, met with Hawai'i government and business leaders yesterday.

"I wanted to make sure that the local government and business community was supportive of the idea," said Levine. "All of them were very enthusiastic about the idea of stimulating Mainland investors and were more than happy to lend a hand as this project moves forward."

Levine said he plans to launch the Mainland campaign with e-mails, letters and meetings with venture capitalists as well as executives of real estate and investment banking firms.

Levine said he already has made preliminary contacts with executives at the newly formed HEI Hospitality, a New York-based investment company planning to spend $300 million to buy and renovate full-service U.S. hotels.

Although Hawai'i was not one of the destinations HEI Hospitality had considered, Levine hopes to change that. "We'd like to see them make a major investment in Hawai'i," he said.