Kauai Newsletter
Spring  2005

Aloha from the Garden Isle, where we greeted the new season with more than the usual enthusiasm.

It was a chilly, rainy, blustery winter here, with temperatures in the 60s much of the time, and we even set a record low of 53 degrees in Lihue on March 16th. But right on cue, on March 20th (the vernal equinox and the first official day of spring) the weather turned balmy and gorgeous, with skies so clear that it feels like you could reach out and grab the mountains looming in the distance, and temperatures in the '70s. Welcome, spring!

In concert with the season, whales are breaching just offshore, and albatrosses are nesting near the ocean bluffs and raising their enormous, down-covered, ever-hungry chicks. We lost a couple of chicks in Princeville this year, which is not unusual but heartbreaking all the same. Failure to thrive, immature parents, or free-ranging dogs could be the cause, and no one will ever know for sure. But at least one set of grieving parents adopted a new chick from an egg that was transplanted to them from the Pacific Missile Range Facility grounds, on the west side of the island. The parents took naturally to the old Hawaii tradition of raising a "hanai," or adopted, child. Indeed, their well-fed chick is the biggest, fattest one of them all. It and the other chicks in the colony are left alone for days at a time while both mother and father travel thousands of miles over the sea to forage for squid. As long as they don't get attacked by dogs, they will continue to thrive, and will fledge this summer.
Exciting New Plans for Princeville

New Princeville owner Jeff Stone has big plans for the 9,000 acre resort, including a multi-million-dollar renovation of the already elegant Princeville hotel. Mr. Stone also plans improvements for both of Princeville's golf courses, and envisions turning the clubhouse of the Makai Golf Course, in the center of Princeville, into an expansive community center and a spa considerably more luxurious than the existing spa at the Prince Clubhouse. He also wants to revamp the Princeville Airport and expand the Princeville Shopping Center. But before embarking on any of these ambitious projects, Mr. Stone intends to secure rental apartment housing for Princeville employees. The most likely site would be in a previously planned "mauka village" on the mountain side of Kuhio Highway, but there are no permits for development in place yet. If even some of Mr..Stone's plans come to fruition, Princeville will soon take its place beside Vail, Aspen, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley, and Hilton Head as a destination resort.

Speaking of destinations, within Princeville, the luxury Ka'iulani of Princeville housing development is expected to break ground soon. The 77 two-story attached homes will be located on a 17-acre peninsular bluff with stunning views all around, with the ocean on the north, the eighth fairway of the Prince Golf Course on the west, and a 250-foot-deep green valley with golf course, ocean and mountain views to the east. The development was designed to respond to buyers who want an elegant single family home, but in a condominium setting. The project will offer an outdoor recreation area with three pools, a spa, water features, and lushly-landscaped, lighted walking paths. The homes will all be built with concrete tile roofs and a two-car garage, as well as upscale interior amenities such as granite and marble counters and built-in appliances. Many of the homes are already under contract, but there are still some available. Prices start at $1.2 million. Please give me a call if you are interested or know someone who is, and I can send you a full-page color brochure.
Condo-Mania on the East Side

A flurry of new condo projects and hotel-to-condo conversions has hit the east side of the island, which has had a chronic shortage of new inventory for years. An old Coconut Grove in Waipouli has been acquired by a New York investment firm, which plans to transform it into a vacation condominium development. The land is zoned to accommodate up to 195 condo units, but the new owners, who 12-acre beachfront site for $11 million in February, say they intend to preserve as many trees and as much open space as possible. If they can get their permits in place, they hope to start construction in a year.

In the same area, the Kauai Coconut Beach Resort re-opened this year as the Courtyard by Marriott, a 200-unit resort hotel. Nearby, the Aston Islander on the Beach hotel is almost complete in its conversion into beachfront studio condominiums in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. And the 350-unit Radisson Kauai Beach Resort also plans to go condo. Typically, "condo-tel" projects give buyers the option of using the hotel's on-site management team to rent out the rooms for them when they're back home. They are an increasingly popular alternative in an era when more people are buying real estate as an investment, especially if they can combine it with a vacation.

Also on the east side, the old Coconut Palms Hotel, which had a starring role in 1961 as the setting for the Elvis Presley movie "Blue Hawaii," has received approval for plans to rebuild it in the old style, with 104 hotel rooms and 200 condos, as well as retail shops, a spa, a museum, restaurants, and office space. The new owner needs to rebuild more than 90 percent of the 1953 hotel, which was damaged heavily by Hurricane Iniki in 1992 and has never been refurbished. The idea is to preserve the hotel's famous Polynesian style as much as possible.The developers also plan to preserve a historic fish pond once used by Debra Kapule, the last queen of Kauai, and a century-old coconut grove. County planners originally denied the developer's request to build a pedestrian overpass over the highway from the hotel to its Sea Shells restaurant, but they recently changed their minds and approved it.The reconstruction is expected to start late this year, and the new Coco Palms hopes to reopen in late 2007.
Successful Lihue Development

A little further south, near Kukui Grove Mall in Lihue, a new town home project with beautiful mountain views and a stream, bordering on the Puakea Golf Course, will soon be breaking ground. The 83 town homes will be built on 15 acres with landscaped grounds and a heated pool. Prices start at just $399,000 for a one-bedroom. As of today, there are only three units still available for sale.
New Interisland Travel Alternatives Planned

Flights between islands in Hawaii usually cost between $70 and $120 for a one-way trip, and some enterprising marketers have decided there's got to be a better way.

One of them is John Garibaldi, chief executive of a planned interisland boat service called the Hawaii Superferry. The Superferry project has been talked about for years, and was just starting to become a reality when it hit a roadblock that may prove fatal. While the first 354-foot vessel is under construction in Mobile, AL, three environmental groups have filed suit against the Superferry company, demanding that an environmental impact study be conducted. The ferry company says that the nine-month delay the study would cause the company to miss a crucial deadline to receive government approval and could kill the project. But if the dispute can be resolved, the ferry will open in 2007, offering a cruise-ship type of atmosphere with dining, movies, a play area for children, and internet access for the three-hour trip between Oahu and Kauai or Maui. One-way tickets could go for as little as $52 with advance internet booking.

Another interisland transportation alternative in the works is a planned low-cost airline called Fly Hawaii, which hopes to start flights from Lihue to Honolulu in 2006. The airline would compete with the larger Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines by offering more flights and a cost of around $50 for a one- way trip, following in the steps of successful mainland discount carriers like Jet Blue and Southwest. The company would run 68-seat turboprop planes every 45 minutes from early morning to late at night. Logistics, permits, and terminal space still need to be worked out. In addition to offering visitors more convenient options and lower fares, the flights would be a boon to residents who like to visit the bright lights of Honolulu for opera, dining, and other entertainment not available here. After 2001, airlines curtailed their flight times, making it impossible to return home to Kauai after an evening in the city. Many of us long for the extended service that we hope this new airline will provide.
Hawaiian Culture Expo Coming to Anahola

Of course, we also enjoy our local entertainment, which will be expanded soon to include a "Native People's Marketplace" scheduled to open in Anahola August 20th. The fair, part of a mammoth Project Faith designed to create economic self-sufficiency for Native Hawaiians in Anahola, will feature activities, games, food, and entertainment on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The grand opening will feature entertainment by a local hula halau, fire dancers, and local Hawaiian musicians, as well as a petting zoo and a massage area. It's designed to attract residents and tourists alike.
Preserving Beach Access and Protecting Lungs

As new developments continue to be built along the coastline, many people have become concerned about beach access. By law, the oceanfront is a public place, but getting there can be a problem. As a result, a bill is in the state legislature that would map all of the public access points to the state's shoreline. The idea behind the bill is to preserve the access points and possibly plan new ones. The new law was passed by the state House and awaits approval from the Senate.

Another proposed law would make public beaches and parks off-limits to smokers. The bill, which would also prohibit smoking within 25 feet of playgrounds, would outlaw both smoking and disposal of cigarette buts except in designated containers, with fines of up to $250. If the law passes, it will follow a long Hawaiian tradition of preserving nature in public places. Visual preservation is also important, and Hawaii is one of a handful of states that prohibits all billboards. Now that you know, isn't it a nice thing not to notice?
Real Estate

In real estate news, Kauai property values continue to rise as mainland buyers throng to the little green island, which never has enough homes or condos as people want to buy, precisely because it wants to remain the green gem that it is. In February, the median price for a single-family home reached $627,000, surpassing Maui for the first time. Condo prices were up 24 percent in Princeville over the same month in 2004, and up up 7 percent for the same time period in Poipu and Koloa. Land prices were up 24 percent on the North Shore and 77 percent in Koloa/Poipu, where land is increasingly scarce. It's a trend that many expect to continue even as mortgage interest rates begin to rise from their historic lows, simply because of supply and demand. More investors, especially Baby Boomers, are diversifying into real estate, and more visitors are discovering the beauty and the uncomplicated way of life that Kauai has to offer. As new developers like Jeff Stone arrive and build the kind of homes and communities that are featured in luxury magazine spreads, Kauai becomes an ever more prestigious destination, but one that will always be founded in simplicity.

That’s all for now. Please feel free to e-mail me with real estate questions, and remember, the week before your next visit to the island, you may CALL OR E-MAIL ME and I’ll e-mail you appropriate listings. You can then sift through them and select the most promising so that you don’t waste precious vacation time wandering around open houses or running to last-minute showings. I'll be seeing you!

With warmest aloha,