“On the East Side of the Garden Isle, between the historical towns of Kapa‘a and Wailua, is a beachfront haven unlike any other. It’s a place where Hawaiian kings and high chiefs sought solitude, famous filmmakers captured their most prized
“On the East Side of the Garden Isle, between the historical towns of Kapa‘a and Wailua, is a beachfront haven unlike any other. It’s a place where Hawaiian kings and high chiefs sought solitude, famous filmmakers captured their most prized backdrops, and Hemmingway found inspiration.
Now, it’s your turn.” So reads the glitzy brochure for the Waipouli Beach Resort, a recently announced 196-unit luxury condominium project across from the Kaua‘i Village shopping center.
If its description sounds dreamlike, it is.
It will take at least a year before the project comes to fruition. No ground has been broken. No sales contracts have been signed, and any money exchange at this point would violate laws set down by the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
Still, the resort’s promised luxury lifestyle — complete with one- and twobedroom units, a swimming pool, a restaurant and a spa — and the dearth of new condo projects, have made the Waipouli Beach Resort a kind of mirage, drawing property-starved believers to its shimmering shores.
“It’s like a stock offering, or an IPO (initial public offering),” said Jeff Fleming, 25-year Kaua‘i resident and manager of Lanier Worldwide. “I’m on the list for two units, a one-bedroom for $495,000 and a two-bedroom for $650,000.” Fleming, like so many people looking for investment property or a place in the sun, wants to be the first in on the ground-floor of the condominium development — one of the first new developments in 20 years to grace the rapidly growing east side of Kaua‘i.
Ready to spend what most people would call a fortune for property sight un-seen, Fleming is what Waipouli Resort developer Keith Singleton would call a true believer.
“We can’t hold them off,” Singleton howled over his cellphone from his sales office in the Kaua‘i Village shopping center yesterday. “There’s just too many of them. We open public reservations for sales at eight a.m.!” How much of that is sales hype and how much actual feeding frenzy can only be determined by the final numbers.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that Singleton should have no problem signing folks up for the condos, and he swears that he’s already logged at least 70 qualified inquiries since word of the project hit The Garden Island and other media late last week.
But it’s the “local” buyer for whom today is reserved, Singleton said.
“This is local, absolutely local,” Singleton said. But he also admits he wouldn’t turn away non-local buyers, and that “all comers” will have “first shot” at premium Waipouli beachfront living. Ultimately, he admits, it comes down to who signs up and secures financing first.
He expects hundreds from inside and outside the state to join Fleming on the super-hot “reservations” list for the oneand two-bedroom units.
Meanwhile, “local” day comes a full day in advance of a “broker’s open” to be held tomorrow.
“We’re letting the public have first crack,” Singleton said. “The brokers have been coming in, doing their job, but they’ll have tomorrow.” Originally marketed as ranging from $350,000 to $2.5 million, only one condo was actually priced at $350,000, according to Fleming.
But that hasn’t stopped folks from signing up, Singleton said.
Units not reserved are going for the higher prices, which Fleming figures will look cheap in a few years.
“It’s really a combination of supply and demand, and the stupid levels of pricing that have come to the island lately,” Fleming said. “There’s not that much available now, and the developers know it’ll be gone soon.” For now, says Keith Nitta, county planner, “this is all about locking in prices.” The partners are planning to use profits from the Waipouli Beach Resort to fund a similiar development nearby in Kapa‘a.
