Ko Olina Resort is a 642-acre (2.60Â km2) master-planned vacation and residential community on the leeward coast of Oahu, 17 miles (27Â km) northwest of Honolulu. Ko Olina has 2 miles (3.2Â km) of coastal frontage and includes three natural and four man-made lagoons with white-sand beaches. It is home to four hotel and vacation-club resorts: Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa; the Ihilani Resort & Spa, Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club, and The Four Seasons at Ko Olina, as well as several resort condominiums and villa homes. Previously, the JW Marriott at Ko Olina occupied The Four Seasons property. An Atlantis Resort, similar to Atlantis Dubai, is currently being designed as an international destination for millennial travelers. The property will be adjacent to the condominiums located on lagoon three.
Major events hosted at Ko Olina Resort include the LPGA Lotte Championship, the Ko Olina Children's Film & Music Festival and the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival.
History
Ko Olina is part of an original royal land division that extended from the waters off Pearl Harbor to the summit of the Waianae Mountains. The area was a sacred place used for rest and relaxation by Hawaiian chiefs, like Kakuhihewa, and Hawaiian royalty. Kamehameha the Great and his wife Ka’ahumanu were frequent visitors, bathing in the protected water of its reef-sheltered coves, fishing, and participating in religious ceremonies. Hawaii's last monarch, Lili’uokalani, also came to Ko Olina for time away.
The industrialist James Campbell helped develop much of the Ewa Plain, where Ko Olina is situated. In the late 1800s, after purchasing 41,000 acres (166 km2) of arid, barren land, he had water wells drilled for irrigation and built a plantation for sugar-cane production. In the 1930s, his daughter Alice Kamokila Campbell moved to what was then a secluded shore in the area. During World War II, Ms. Campbell allowed her property at Ko Olina, which she called Lanikuhonua (“where heaven meets earth†in Hawaiian), to serve as a recreational retreat for army and navy servicemen.
In the mid 1980s, Hawaii developer Herbert Horita and his Japanese investment partner, Takeshi Sekiguchi, purchased the Ko Olina Resort property and entitled, designed and built the four man-made lagoons, marina basin, golf course and all infrastructure. After the Japanese real-estate bubble burst in the early 1990s, development at the resort stopped after the completion of the golf course, a resort condominium and just one hotel, which was the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa and is now the Four Seasons Resort Oahu at Ko Olina.
In 1998 developer Jeffrey Stone, President of The Resort Group, and partners bought the property from Herbert Horita's lender, The Industrial Bank of Japan, and began its revival. To date they have added two vacation resorts, Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club and Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa; villa homes, and multiple resort condominiums, including the oceanfront Ko Olina Beach Villas Resort, a luxury condominium with a rental program overseen by Resort Management Company. Approximately 150 additional long- and short-term rentals are managed by owners directly or through authorized agents. In 2013, The Kona Group, an investment firm funded by Tamra-Tacoma Capital Partners, announced $150 million of residential acquisition and development in the Ko Olina and Kapolei neighborhoods. Stone and partners also have added a full-service marina; two commercial centers with retail and dining; four wedding chapels; an activity center, and a beach and sports club for residents. Currently, approximately 50 percent of the 642-acre resort is developed.
References
