$60 million upgrade planned for Wailea Beach Marriott

By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer, Maui News 10/26/05:
WAILUKU – The new owners of the Wailea Beach Marriott are planning to invest $60 million to bring it back to being a “genuine four-star hotel.”

The owners, BRE/Wailea LLC (part of the giant Blackstone Real Estate Group), will first have to go through a contested case with the neighbors at Wailea Beach Villas, who object to a new restaurant close to their property line.

The renovations will not add any rooms to the 538 that have been there for 30 years, but they are expected to greatly enhance revenue.

Barry Lewin, a former president of the Maui Hotel Association who is now executive vice president of operations of Luxury Resorts (part of Blackstone), told the Maui Planning Commission Tuesday the prices for rooms will be increasing after the renovations.

“The rate is going to go up dramatically, rather than being $180 below the average Wailea rate,” he said.

The Wailea Beach Marriott was originally the Wailea Inter-Continental, the first hotel to open in the Wailea Resort. In 1989, it was expanded with a banquet and meeting center before going through a series of ownership changes.

In an era when full-service hotels are being turned into either time shares or luxury condominiums, the Wailea Beach Marriott will continue as a full-service hotel, with the jobs that generates.

Planning Commissioner Wayne Hedani praised that move and commented that at Kaanapali, where he works, “if we had it to do over, we probably would look in another direction” than time share.

“We’re excited about the upgrade, and we’re really happy it’s staying as a hotel,” said Philip Johnson, the design and covenants manager at Wailea Community Association.

Consultant Chris Hart said it might have been difficult to make it a time share anyway, since they are banned in Wailea.

BRE bought the hotel, and another in Waikoloa, last year from Outrigger, shortly after it sold the Hyatt Regency Maui for over $300 million. BRE already is working on a $19 million room upgrade and conversion of one restaurant into a spa.

If it gets its special management area permit and planned development approvals, it plans about $40 million of additional work.

The entrance will be rebuilt to be more intimate and to present guests with a focused view of the other islands instead of a wall of hotel room balconies.

A permanent tent will be erected over the activities deck atop the banquet hall, and the parking structure will get an additional level.

When Wailea was a small resort with just two hotels, the then Inter-Continental could send its overflow parking to the underused lot shared with what was then the Wailea Town Center. Now that the massive Shops at Wailea has taken over the commercial area, the hotel needs to repatriate its parking.

Other changes include two new pools in now-grassy courtyards and the addition of a water feature in the Family Pool; replacement of 1970s-style roofs with a more territorial profile; revised landscaping; and Hawaiian motifs on blank walls.

Architect Peter Mason of Hill Glazier Architects in Palo Alto, Calif., said the goal is to eliminate the “egg crate” look of stacked balconies.

Commissioners and witnesses testifying at the public hearing largely praised the changes – except for a new, 175-seat restaurant.

The eatery would occupy part of the area now used by the luau, which would be closed.

Representing the neighboring owners, lawyer David Nakamura argued for intervention on the Wailea Beach Marriott owners’ SMA application, saying it was obvious that “they put that restaurant there, purposefully, as far away from their rooms as possible.”

The commission voted unanimously to grant intervention, and Chairman Susan Moikeha emphasized to both sides that if they come to a settlement agreement “there will be no confidentiality clauses” to prevent the commission from learning the details.

She said this has been a problem in past contested cases, and she did not want any doubts raised about the commission’s position.

The project, if approved, would require about a year and a half of work, and the hotel would continue to operate, although with some restrictions. BRE representatives said displaced workers are being offered other work as the owners can find it, including on the construction crews and at other properties on the island.
(By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer, Maui News 10/26/05)

 

SPECIAL OF THE WEEK -- $15 MILLION WAILEA POINT OCEANFRONT CONDO:
                                                  click here for photos --