Stone said he'd like to reunite the two Makaha golf courses as a way to gain efficiency and improve operations under single ownership.

Makaha Valley Country Club, commonly known as Makaha-East, is owned by Nitto Kogyo Co. Ltd., a Japan-based golf course operator that was acquired by Goldman Sachs Group in December 2001 and is undergoing a court-supervised financial reorganization.

CB Richard Ellis Hawai'i Inc. is representing Makaha-East owners, though officials with the local real estate firm declined to comment.

Stone, who partnered to buy the largely undeveloped Ko Olina resort in 1998, has had on-and-off interests in owning Makaha resort property. He reached an agreement in early 2000 with ANA Hotels Hawai'i Inc. to acquire Makaha Golf Club (Makaha-West) and its shuttered hotel for possible use as amenities for Ko Olina guests.

But that deal fell through, and ANA in late 2000 sold the property to Wisconsin-based real estate development firm Towne Realty Inc., which renovated and reopened 173 hotel rooms and has been operating the hotel and golf course marketed as a kama'aina golf resort.

In April, Stone again offered to buy the property, renamed Makaha Resort & Golf Club, for use as a workforce training facility in an effort to win support for $75 million in tax-credits to finance an aquarium at Ko Olina.

At Gov. Linda Lingle's suggestion, Stone instead agreed to provide $2.5 million in cash over six years to help Leeward residents pay for vocational training at existing tourism-related schools and programs.

"I think you have to bring the valley back together," he said.

Chris Lau, Towne Realty president in Hawai'i, said his company also has an interest in acquiring Makaha-East, although he said Towne Realty has not made an offer.

"If there was an offering, we would certainly take a very hard look at it," he said.

The two 18-hole courses were developed in the late 1960s by Hawai'i financier Chinn Ho, who sold Makaha-East and surrounding property to Nitto Kogyo in 1982 for $6.5 million.

Yoshio Sano, general manager of Makaha-East, said he has received no announcement from the owner regarding a possible sale.

Sano said golfers, about 80 percent of whom were kama'aina, played about 45,000 rounds last year at the course.