MAUNALOA, Moloka'i — Molokai Properties Ltd. is not abandoning its controversial plans to develop La'au Point, and its vast ranch lands, hotels and other holdings are not for sale, a top-ranking union official said he was told by company officials earlier this week.

Molokai Properties officials have shunned the news media since announcing the Molokai Ranch's closure two weeks ago. Effective yesterday at 2 p.m., Molokai Properties Ltd. was no longer the largest private employer on the island of about 7,500 people.

But International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 President Fred Galdones said Friday that he met with MPL President Peter Nicholas on Wednesday.

"We were told this is strictly a business decision," Galdones said. "The revenues generated by the lodge are not enough to sustain it. They need La'au. They also need to work with the community and ask them,

'This is your home. What do you want it to look like?'"

Galdones said that absent of some cash cow coming in with a major offer, Molokai Properties looks like it will hold onto the ranch.

The next day, Galdones held meetings with the 79 members of the ranch's bargaining unit to help them as they move into unemployment or inform them about what ILWU hotel jobs are available on Maui. He said he anticipates that Moloka'i's economy will become more depressed.

The La'au Point development would consist of 200, 2-acre lots for wealthy homeowners as well as a number of community improvements. But opponents of the plan say the area is considered sacred, and the extensive public discussions about the proposal have split the community.

In a written statement two weeks ago, Nicholas said shutting down ranch operations was purely a business decision connected to large deficits and stubborn community resistance to ranch development plans. The ranch helped coordinate the Community-Based Master Land Use Plan and proposed to set aside more than 50,000 acres for preservation and agricultural easements in perpetuity.

The ranch also told the state Land Use Commission in late February that it still anticipates submitting its final environmental impact statement for the project.

For the past nine months, Karen Holt, executive director of the Moloka'i Community Services Council and a La'au opponent, has helped organize a counter-fundraising campaign, Ho'i I Ka Pono, to purchase the ranch.

UPC Wind Partners has pledged $50 million toward acquiring the properties, the actual value of which is unknown. However, Molokai Properties has said that it expects to sell the La'au lots for an estimated $193 million.

Those against the ranch's plans held a community meeting in Kaunakakai on Wednesday evening to continue to bolster support for the fundraising effort. Hong Kong-based GuocoLeisure Ltd. is the parent company of Molokai Properties and owns the ranch.

"Of course, Molokai Ranch is not a family heirloom," Holt said yesterday. "It's a piece of real estate. It was bought so it could be sold. The local management might not see it that way, but I'm sure their parent company does."

Many ranch employees and others in the community blame plan opponents and environmentalists for the loss of 120 full-time Molokai Ranch jobs.

"It's understandable since the ranch is blaming those people," Holt said. "But the ranch is firing them. I certainly understand how they feel that way, but they are only trying to get the ranch not to spoil a very special place (La'au Point). The reality is that the ranch has taken a calculated gamble."

As far as it being a tactic, Galdones said the ranch simply believes this is the best way to move forward. And he said he has no idea how long they will continue down this path.

"The community will have to determine its destiny," the union chief said. "It's not my place to comment as an outsider."

According to Gov. Linda Lingle's office, the company stated that its net loss from 2001 to 2006 has been about $37 million. Molokai Ranch had maintained about 800 head of cattle as well as a golf course, the 40-room Kaupoa Beach Village and 22-room Molokai Lodge.

"I think the people are relieved," said former Moloka'i Planning Commission member DeGray Vanderbilt. "I think we had a major foreign company that didn't have Moloka'i's best interests at heart. If they didn't disappoint us now, they would have down the road."

In the meantime, Lingle has assembled her Moloka'i Action Team, which is made up of state, county, business and community representatives. The team will coordinate the effort to help the displaced workers. The first meeting of the 14-member Moloka'i Action Team, which is headed by state Planning Director Abbey Seth Mayer, is scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow in the conference room at Kulana Oiwi in Kaunakakai.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and Maui County also will host a job fair April 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kulana Oiwi Halau.

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