Maui developer planning 200 new homes in Kihei

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

A local construction company has teamed with a Minneapolis homebuilder to develop about 200 homes around Elleair Maui Golf Club after purchasing the golf course in Kihei earlier this year.

Kihei-based Betsill Bros. Construction expects to break ground in three months for the first homes, a combination of townhouses and single-family residences priced around $800,000 to $1.3 million.

Betsill Bros. and two investors doing business as Maui Highlands Properties LLC bought the land in and around the 18-hole golf course in February for $12.5 million from Haleakala Ranch Co.

Maui Highlands continues leasing the golf course to Japan-based operator Elleair Hawaii Inc., which acquired the lease to the links in 1999 for $6.9 million.

Dwayne Betsill, company vice president of finance and construction, said Maui Highlands is negotiating to sell the fee-simple interest in the golf course to Elleair Hawaii, and would keep 53 acres of residential-zoned land around the course for construction and sale of the homes.

Betsill Bros. plans to build 58 of the homes. Minneapolis firm Charles Cudd Co. would build about 150 more. The subdivision is expected to take about two years to complete.

Dwayne Betsill said the project is of moderate size for his company, which just finished building 140 condos in Kihei, and has several projects coming up that are twice the size of the Elleair golf course homes Betsill Bros. is to build.

The partners with Betsill Bros. in Maui Highlands are Maui resident Raymond M. Phillips and Southern California investor Enrique Landa.

Charles Cudd Co. is building homes in six Minneapolis/St. Paul-area neighborhoods with roughly 20 to 70 homes each. Cudd home prices, some of which exclude land, generally range from $400,000 to $500,000.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.