Hotel is proposed along Kauai ridge

Local resort developer Jeff Stone is proposing to build an 80-unit hotel complex along a ridge overlooking Hanalei Bay on Kauai after the founder of eBay failed to advance a bigger project on much of the same site four years ago.

Despite changes Stone has made, community opposition still exists over impacts to public view planes.

Stone announced Monday night his plans for what he has dubbed Princeville Lodge, and said the proposed $100 million project was designed with relatively low density that attempts to address community concerns raised against a 2012 plan by eBay’s billionaire founder Pierre Omidyar, who wanted to develop 86 bungalow hotel units and 34 residential house lots along with a restaurant, pool, spa and meetings rooms.

Omidyar, through representatives of his company, Ohana Hanalei LLC, was met with a roughly 6,000-signature opposition petition and a heavily negative response at a community meeting even though he characterized his plan as sensitive to both community concerns and the site, which includes Kauakaniunu Ridge above Hanalei River next to the bay.

Stone, who announced his plan after The Garden Island newspaper ran a story about it Monday, described his project as even more low-key. The developer said his lodge with 25 two-story buildings on the ridge also known as Kau­nuopua would not be as visible to users of the neighboring Black Pot Beach and Hanalei Pier compared with past plans.

“We have listened to the community’s concerns regarding Kaunuopua Ridge over several years and developed a project that we believe meets almost all of them,” he said in a statement.

Carl Imparato, president of the Hanalei-to-Haena Community Association, said he isn’t convinced that the view issue has been addressed.

“We’re really skeptical of that,” Imparato said. “It’s very hard to hide any development that’s 150 feet away (from the beach park). We’ll see a wall of development lining the ridge above the river.”

Imparato also said community members have problems with how Stone intends to obtain permitting approvals for his plan.

Stone’s firm, Princeville Development Co., recently obtained from the county an exemption to rules governing how far buildings must be from the shoreline. The exemption allows proposed buildings to be 60 feet away, short of the 100-foot requirement. Stone also wants to amend a Special Management Area permit that the Kauai Planning Department approved for a larger resort condominium project on the site in the 1980s.

“That is a major issue,” Imparato said. “The developer is trying to ride on 1980s permits and an exemption from the shoreline setback ordinance.”

Imparato said concerned citizens, who include a group called Save Hanalei River Ridge which was formed in 2012 and is now also known as Defend Hanalei, are preparing for a legal fight if necessary. He also said he believes a compromise that protects the ridge and is good for Stone can be achieved.

“We all are looking for a win-win situation here,” he said.

Omidyar contemplated two alternatives to his project that included no development along the ridge. One alternative called for 86 hotel units and 108 residential units on land beyond the ridge, including 50 hotel units overlooking Puu Poa Marsh, also known as Kamoomaikai Fishpond, that was to be revitalized. The second alternative called for 86 residential units and contained less marsh revitalization work.

Omidyar produced a 171-page environmental impact statement preparation notice in late 2012 for his project but didn’t follow through with his plan.

One major difference between Omidyar’s plan and Stone’s is that the former plan covered 65 acres whereas Stone’s project is slated for only 19 acres. Stone did not say whether the balance of the property might be developed in the future.

Still, Stone described his plan as having “far less” density than Omidyar’s plan and other projects that previously occupied or were proposed for the property.

The land Stone wants to develop was home to the Hanalei Plantation Hotel in the 1960s. The hotel, which had 49 single-story cottages along the ridge and 161 rooms in a couple of four- to five-story buildings, was torn down and replaced by a Club Med complex that operated from the mid-1970s to 1978, according to Omid­yar’s environmental report.

In 1979 Hawaii developer Bruce Stark acquired the property and obtained approval a year later to build 90 resort condominiums. In 1984 Stark got his plan amended to allow 204 resort units along with a restaurant and lobby building.

Stark demolished the old club and began building his project but ran into financial trouble and abandoned work that included underground infrastructure, building foundations and some framing. The old remains are still on the property.

Stone bought Princeville Resort, which included the old Hanalei Plantation site, in 2004. Omidyar’s report noted that Stone’s Resort Group created several plans to develop this site in 2005, including one with 550 homes and one with 1,100 resort units and a marina.

In 2007 Stone sold the Hanalei Plantation site as part of 122 acres for $75 million to Ohana Hanalei, which is an affiliate of Omidyar’s resort investment and development firm Ohana Real Estate Investors, which in turn is connected with Las Vegas-based Montage Hotels &Resorts.

At the time, Montage founder and CEO Alan Fuerstman said the company expected to build “a wonderful and appropriate Montage Resort at Hanalei, one that the entire community will be welcomed to enjoy and be proud of.”

As part of the new development plan, Stone has an option to buy back the 122 acres from Omidyar for $75 million.