SOURCE: Ken Taylor (taylork021@hawaii.rr.com)
SUBHEAD: A tragic move. Kauai County green lights Coco Palms Resort demolition and renovation.
By Darin Moriki on 18 August 2015 for Pacific Business News -
(http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2015/08/19/kauai-county-green-lights-coco-palms-resort.html)
Image above: What is all the nostalgia about? Elvis has left the building. Even undamaged this "resort" looks like a rustic Motel 6. The proposed new facility by Ron Agor Architects is worse than the original. From (https://roadtrippers.com/us/kauai-hi/points-of-interest/coco-palms-resort).
[IB Publisher's note: As a retired architect and planner all I can say is "Wow!" How stupid can we get. I applaud the go ahead on the demolition approval. But giving the okay to this project to rebuild a large resort hotel on this sensitive site is not much more than the payoff on a Ponzi scheme operated by the developers. Our local government agents have proven to be the apprentices and bag-men for these "developers". The Coco Palms has been a cultural and end environmental abomination since the day it was first built in 1953. Kauai should know better. The site of this project is the nexus of many problems we face from traffic gridlock to cultural insensitivity, to rising seas and chaotic ocean storms due to clogal warming. As the ocean chews its way through the Kuhio Highway in front of the Coco Palms we'll be kicking ourselves for not seeing this coming disaster.]
The $135 million project to redevelop the famed Coco Palms Resort on Kauai came one step closer to becoming a reality after Kauai County officials on Wednesday released the first set of permits needed to begin demolition work.
The state Historic Preservation Division this week officially verified that the Honolulu-based group of investors who will purchase and redevelop the Coco Palms Resort, Coco Palms Hui LLC, satisfied all of their requirements, paving the way for building and demolition permits to be released to the group.
"As we all know, a lot of faith was put into this project and a lot of people, some reluctantly, gave the green light and it's like the last hurrah for Coco Palms," Kauai Planning Commissioner Sean Mahoney told Coco Palms Hui LLC principal Tyler Greene and Coco Palms Resort architect Ron Agor during a board meeting last week. "A lot of people are rooting for it."
The County of Kauai officially released the demolition permits for structures on the Wailua property on Wednesday, giving Coco Palms Hui LLC six months to complete the demolition work.
Greene said the demolition process should be complete within four to six months.
"There was an issue with capacity here at the landfill on Kauai, so we'll have to ship that rubbish to Oahu, which is part of the factor in the timing of that," Greene explained.
The Wailua resort — made famous by its appearance in the 1961 Elvis Presley film "Blue Hawaii," was shuttered immediately after Hurricane Iniki battered the Garden Isle on Sept. 11, 1992, and has never reopened since then.
The project would include 273 hotel rooms and 77 suites within the hotel’s existing footprint — a slight reduction from the 398 to 403 rooms that existed in the original hotel.
As currently proposed, well-known buildings on the property, including the Prince Cottages, Queen’s Cottages, King’s Cottages, and King and Queen Lagoon Buildings, will be re-built and raised above the ground to comply with federal flood requirements.
The entire 350-room resort, which will be flagged and operated by Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H), should be open by spring 2017.
PBN reached out to Greene and his partner, Chad Waters, for comment.
.
SUBHEAD: A tragic move. Kauai County green lights Coco Palms Resort demolition and renovation.
By Darin Moriki on 18 August 2015 for Pacific Business News -
(http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2015/08/19/kauai-county-green-lights-coco-palms-resort.html)
Image above: What is all the nostalgia about? Elvis has left the building. Even undamaged this "resort" looks like a rustic Motel 6. The proposed new facility by Ron Agor Architects is worse than the original. From (https://roadtrippers.com/us/kauai-hi/points-of-interest/coco-palms-resort).
[IB Publisher's note: As a retired architect and planner all I can say is "Wow!" How stupid can we get. I applaud the go ahead on the demolition approval. But giving the okay to this project to rebuild a large resort hotel on this sensitive site is not much more than the payoff on a Ponzi scheme operated by the developers. Our local government agents have proven to be the apprentices and bag-men for these "developers". The Coco Palms has been a cultural and end environmental abomination since the day it was first built in 1953. Kauai should know better. The site of this project is the nexus of many problems we face from traffic gridlock to cultural insensitivity, to rising seas and chaotic ocean storms due to clogal warming. As the ocean chews its way through the Kuhio Highway in front of the Coco Palms we'll be kicking ourselves for not seeing this coming disaster.]
The $135 million project to redevelop the famed Coco Palms Resort on Kauai came one step closer to becoming a reality after Kauai County officials on Wednesday released the first set of permits needed to begin demolition work.
The state Historic Preservation Division this week officially verified that the Honolulu-based group of investors who will purchase and redevelop the Coco Palms Resort, Coco Palms Hui LLC, satisfied all of their requirements, paving the way for building and demolition permits to be released to the group.
"As we all know, a lot of faith was put into this project and a lot of people, some reluctantly, gave the green light and it's like the last hurrah for Coco Palms," Kauai Planning Commissioner Sean Mahoney told Coco Palms Hui LLC principal Tyler Greene and Coco Palms Resort architect Ron Agor during a board meeting last week. "A lot of people are rooting for it."
The County of Kauai officially released the demolition permits for structures on the Wailua property on Wednesday, giving Coco Palms Hui LLC six months to complete the demolition work.
Greene said the demolition process should be complete within four to six months.
"There was an issue with capacity here at the landfill on Kauai, so we'll have to ship that rubbish to Oahu, which is part of the factor in the timing of that," Greene explained.
The Wailua resort — made famous by its appearance in the 1961 Elvis Presley film "Blue Hawaii," was shuttered immediately after Hurricane Iniki battered the Garden Isle on Sept. 11, 1992, and has never reopened since then.
The project would include 273 hotel rooms and 77 suites within the hotel’s existing footprint — a slight reduction from the 398 to 403 rooms that existed in the original hotel.
As currently proposed, well-known buildings on the property, including the Prince Cottages, Queen’s Cottages, King’s Cottages, and King and Queen Lagoon Buildings, will be re-built and raised above the ground to comply with federal flood requirements.
The entire 350-room resort, which will be flagged and operated by Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H), should be open by spring 2017.
PBN reached out to Greene and his partner, Chad Waters, for comment.
.
No comments :
Post a Comment