Waikoloa luxury lots have brisk early sales
| • | Map: Kolea development |
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
A big Texas homebuilder is getting in on some of the booming residential development at Hawai'i resorts, with its first project in the state racking up millions of dollars in sales.
Dallas-based Centex Corp., a nearly $8 billion publicly traded Fortune 500 company, quietly bought 43 acres of land last year at the Waikoloa Beach Resort on the Big Island's Kohala Coast and recently began infrastructure work and lot sales.
Sewer lines still need to be laid and roads paved, yet the Centex project, called Kolea, has sold four of 17 single-family lots priced at about $3 million, with four more sales contracts for the oceanfront lots expected to fall into place soon. The first home is scheduled to break ground in the next couple of months.
There also is a waiting list of reservations for the 42-unit first phase of luxury townhomes planned at Kolea.
"It's a hub of activity," said Steve Hurwitz, president of Waimea-based C and H Properties Inc., which is handling the lot sales.
The Centex project is one of several at the resort undergoing sales and construction, and part of the continuing market strength of high-end homes in Hawai'i primarily being bought by wealthy Californians looking for second homes with resort amenities including a concierge.
The resort residential market has dramatically grown over the past three or more years on the Big Island, Maui, Kaua'i and O'ahu, accounting for an estimated $1.3 billion in home sales at Hawai'i resorts last year, according to data compiled by market researcher Ricky Cassiday for Prudential Locations.
According to Cassiday, the Big Island's market for home and residential lot sales at resorts has been slightly better than Maui in two of the last three years, reaching nearly $500 million in sales last year.
Centex is planning to build a beach club with two pools, fitness facilities, entertainment area with full kitchen and two extra homes for residents to accommodate guests. Kolea buyers also can sign up for golf and services at the Outrigger Waikoloa and Hilton Waiko-loa Village hotels as though they were hotel guests.
"We're really in the early stages of this project," Hurwitz said. "As things take shape and things are actually built, I expect sales will pick up."
Luxury lots next door
At an adjacent property, resort master planner Waikoloa Land Co. is preparing 11 single-family lots, four of which have sold for $3 million or more each, the company said.
Shawna Henderson, a resort marketing specialist with Playground Destination Properties, a division of Canada-based resort operator and developer Intrawest, which is selling the Kolea townhomes for Centex, said most of the interested buyers are loyal visitors to Hawai'i.
"We're not reaching out to people who have never been here," she said, explaining that the target market is primarily repeat Hawai'i vacationers from California, Washington and Colorado as well as people who already own a home or investment property here.
Roger Harris, vice president of planning for Big Island residential development Pauoa Beach at the Mauna Lani Resort, said wealthy California buyers have been building their dream houses in Hawai'i and playing golf with friends for the past six years — a run that he doesn't see stopping soon.
Since September 2001, nine Pauoa Beach lots have sold for a combined value of more than $48 million, according to the company.
Sept. 11 and quality of life
Patrick O'Neill, vice president of sales and marketing for local homebuilder Stanford Carr Development, which has a project at Waikoloa Resort, said buyers are increasingly commenting that recent terrorism-related events have made them focus on quality-of-life issues and buy the second home they always wanted in Hawai'i.
The Carr project, Waikoloa Colony Villas, comprises 168 townhomes being built on the 15th fairway of Waikoloa Golf Club's Beach Course. Over the past 14 months since sales began, 94 sales have been completed out of 120 units released at prices from $399,000 to $575,000.
Only two of 28 buildings have been completed. A recreation center and pool are scheduled to be finished in mid-March, followed by tennis courts at the $80 million project to be managed by Aston Hotels & Resorts.
"It is definitely something trending up," O'Neill said.
"The baby boomers are ready to enter that period of their life where they are able now to purchase the second home — the ultimate luxury item."
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
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