KAHUKU — Starwood Hotels & Resorts is negotiating to purchase or partner in the expansion of the Turtle Bay Resort, which could include up to five new hotels.

Oaktree Capital Management, owner of Kuilima Resort Co., which includes Turtle Bay Resort, is negotiating with Starwood, Kuilima spokesman Nathan Hokama said yesterday.

"We're looking for the joint venture partner or an outright sale," Hokama said. "All those options are on the table. Nothing is definitive."

Keith Vieira, Starwood senior vice president and director of Pacific operations, would not comment on the negotiations, saying only that the company may have something to comment on next week.

Opponents of the expansion of the North Shore resort, meanwhile, called on the city yesterday to withhold an infrastructure permit that they fear would remove the last significant obstacle to the project.

Bob Nakata, a board member for Defend Oahu Coalition, which opposes the expansion, said the permit could be the key to any sale or partnership involving Starwood and could lock in development rights on a 20-year-old master plan that calls for up to 2,500 more hotel rooms at Turtle Bay.

About 20 years ago, Kuilima Resort obtained approval for a master plan development from Kawela Bay to Kahuku Point for up to 2,500 more hotel rooms.

"This is the last major 'country' area on O'ahu, and we'll never feel like we're out of the city if this scale development is allowed to happen," Nakata said. Once the permit is granted and the property vested, he said, "then it's almost impossible to stop."

The coalition wants to halt or at least reduce the size of the expansion of Turtle Bay in part because of concerns that it would disturb Hawaiian burial sites and add to traffic congestion.

The promise of up to 3,500 jobs has some in the community eager for progress on the plan.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which owns or manages about 870 properties in more than 95 countries with 145,000 employees, would bring considerable clout to the Turtle Bay project. Starwood owns the Sheraton and Westin brands and is a major developer of time-share properties through Starwood Vacation Ownership Inc.

NO SPECIFIC PLANS YET

Henry Eng, director of the city Department of Planning and Permitting, said the city hasn't received an application for an infrastructure permit from the developers.

Kuilima has not settled on specific plans for the development, which won't be possible until it has found partners or a new buyer for the property, according to Hokama, Kuilima's spokesman.

The owners could get an extension on the infrastructure permit for up to a year, Eng said.

Eng said the issue of Hawaiian burial sites on the property likely would not affect the decision on the infrastructure permit.

"If this (the burial site issue) needs to be addressed, it probably would get addressed later on," Eng said.

BURIAL SITES IDENTIFIED

Opponents of the development recently obtained an August 2006 archaeological report paid for by Turtle Bay Resort that identifies 19 burial sites on the property and calls for additional testing to determine if there are larger burial sites.

Carol Philips, president of the Defend Oahu Coalition, said the Hawaiian population plummeted after Western contact from disease and pests.

"There might have been mass die-off and that would account for large burial grounds perhaps in these sand dunes," Philips said. "I'm fairly sure visitors are not going to want to come here knowing that they're staying on a burial ground that's desecrated."

Philips said she hopes to convince the city of the possibility of mass burials and the need to withhold the infrastructure permit until all of the burial sites are located.

But traffic also needs to be considered because the highway leading to the hotel area is only two lanes and falling into the ocean in some areas, she said.

The Turtle Bay expansion plan is based on a 1986 agreement reached with the city and state.

The expansion could add up to 2,500 rooms to the resort, which now has one hotel with about 500 units. It also would add several public parks and more access routes to the water.

In October, the city Department of Planning and Permitting gave tentative approval to the expansion. A month later, Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna dismissed a lawsuit in which several North Shore and environmental groups had asked for an additional environmental impact statement on the plan.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.