Coral Reef units sold too fast for some

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Condominium sales of Aston Coral Reef Hotel rooms over the weekend moved exceptionally fast, but even some of the first would-be buyers at Saturday morning's "grand opening" found few of the 247 units available.

Preferred clients of the hotel owner and real estate broker reserved at least 130 of the leasehold units, mostly the bigger one- and two-bedroom suites on upper floors, before the general public was invited in.

"They were just about all gone," said Elwyn Kan, a semiretired Honolulu resident who arrived about 15 minutes before the 10 a.m. grand opening. "That was sort of bad ... some of us need a chance."

Peter Savio, president of Hawaiian Island Homes Ltd., sales agent for the Coral Reef, said a lot of prospective buyers were disappointed even though preferred customers were limited to buying two units each.

"We were trying to give everybody a fair shot in terms of the public ... but it's just that there was a lot of demand for certain units," he said.

Savio said his company typically markets condos converted from hotel and rental apartment units by mailing invitations to past customers, and does little general advertising. But Savio said the owner of the Coral Reef, André Tatibouet, also had a list of preferred clients, family and friends who reserved about 100 units.

"You think having a fast market is good. It's good and it's bad," he said, noting that the public rush probably would have been greater if Sunday hadn't been Mother's Day.

Tatibouet, the founder and former president of Aston Hotels & Resorts, said his friends and family only bought a few units in the hotel on the corner of Kuhio Avenue and Duke's Lane behind the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel.

As of yesterday morning, about 45 units on the seventh floor and below remained in the 15-story hotel, mostly studios with kitchenettes and "lodging units" without cooking appliances.

Kan, who is tired of paying rent, said she would have bought a two-bedroom unit if one had been available. "If you want a place with no view and you can't cook, that's fine for other people, but not for me," she said. "In that respect it was disappointing."

Coral Reef units are being marketed from $59,500 to $150,000. The property's ground lease with The Queen Emma Foundation runs until 2050. The conversion is expected to raise about $25 million for Tatibouet. Unit buyers have the option of keeping their units in a vacation rental program to be managed by Aqua Hotels & Resorts.