TGI STAFF The 32 workers at Kiahuna Golf Club in Po’ipu will have a new employer as early as March. The 18-hole golf course and 90 acres of adjacent land, originally master-planned for an additional nine holes of golf plus
TGI STAFF
The 32 workers at Kiahuna Golf Club in Po’ipu will have a new employer as early as March.
The 18-hole golf course and 90 acres of adjacent land, originally master-planned for an additional nine holes of golf plus single-family and condominium housing projects, were sold recently as part of a package of three golf courses on three islands for a reported $12.4 million.
A spokeswoman for a public relations firm retained by the new owner, KG Holdings, wouldn’t reveal the sale price.
But the buyer, a group headed by Bert Kobayashi, board chairman and principal shareholder of Kobayashi Holdings, may have gotten a great deal, according to local Realtors.
Frank Supon, now a Realtor with Pacific Ocean Properties, was an officer with the development group that built the golf course. He said the last time he checked, the asking price for Kiahuna Golf Course alone was $30 million, largely influenced by the accomanying 90 acres of land ripe for development.
Other Realtors estimated the asking price for the three courses in the vicinity of $30 million to $45 million.
KG Holdings formed earlier this month for the sole purpose of acquiring the golf courses. The sale marks the exodus of Japan-based Sports Shinko Hawai’i from the golf course business in the state.
Sports Shinko bought Kiahuna, Mililani Golf Course in central O’ahu and Pukalani Country Club in upland Maui, along with three Waikiki hotels, for around $164 million in the late 1980s.
Kobayashi said operations at all three golf courses will continue as usual, all golf reservations will be honored, and no employee layoffs are being considered.
“We believe strongly in Hawaii’s prospects for economic recovery, and that now is the right time to diversify by moving into the tourism and recreation industries,” said Kobayashi.
“We look forward to increasing (the courses’) customer base,” added Kobayashi, who is also chairman of Kobayashi Development Group, a development and consulting firm.
Kiahuna, a 6,400-yard, par-70 course, was designed by famed golf architect Robert Trent Jones and was built around historical cultural features, including heiau and a Portuguese oven.
The courses, under Sports Shinko Hawai’i, were marketed heavily to golfers from Japan, who quit traveling by the thousands after the terrorist hijackings of airliners last Sept. 11. That hurt business at all three courses.
Joe’s on the Green will remain the clubhouse restaurant at Kiahuna. Joe Batteiger, owner of the eatery, said he has a couple years left on his existing lease and has no plans to move or close the restaurant and bar.
Wayne Tanigawa, director of operations for KG Holdings, said the operational transition is expected to be complete by the end of March.
He said there are currently no plans for development of the land near Kiahuna or the 30 acres adjacent to Pukalani Country Club on Maui that were all part of the purchase.
Staff writer Paul C. Curtis contributed to this report.
