Pioneering property

The opening of the Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa in 1963 ushered in the start of Maui’s modern-day visitor industry and brought a world of opportunities to locals like Lori Sablas, who without the resort would likely have had to work at a plantation, a cannery or leave the island to be self-supporting.

"I don’t need a reminder that the resort is turning 50," said Sablas, who got a job as secretary to the Sheraton Maui‘s controller right after graduation. "I’ve lived this history."

While Sablas moved on to become director of the Kaanapali Beach Hotel’s award-winning cultural program, she’s never forgotten the 12 years that she spent at the neighboring hotel.

"It was my boot camp for entry into the visitor industry," Sablas said. "I appreciated the fact that it opened at that time, because it allowed me to be gainfully employed in a nice industry, which brought the world to Maui. Some of my siblings and cousins had to move to Oahu for jobs."

The opening of the hotel and the start of tourism on Maui provided jobs for people of all ethnicities who would not have found it easy to find other employment after the plantations closed, said Keith Vieira, senior vice president and director of operations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Hawaii and French Polynesia.

"By the end of the ’70s, tourism had overtaken sugar and pineapple, whose strength drove the economy in earlier decades," Vieira said. "Hotels are very labor intensive. Nearly all of the money spent by tourists goes back into labor, produce, operations, electricity."

Locals pinpoint the opening of the Sheraton Maui on Jan. 23, 1963, as the start of job diversification; however, the resort marked many firsts in Hawaii and on Maui. It was the first visitor-oriented resort on Maui and the first neighbor island hotel branded with a mainland hotel company’s flag. Sheraton Maui was the first master-planned resort in the state with the first visitor-oriented golf course. Its grand opening, which was attended by celebrities like Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Fred MacMurray to California Gov. Pat Brown and golfing great Sam Snead, coincided with the start of the first direct flights between Los Angeles and Maui.

For decades the resort played a prominent role in shaping Hawaii’s travel landscape. It made the cover of National Geographic, and its distinctive architecture was selected for inclusion by the New York Museum of Modern Art for its "Architecture-USA" exhibition, which toured through the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the 1960s. It also has been featured in films such as "Paradise, Hawaiian Style," starring Elvis Presley, "Hawaii" and "Hereafter," directed by Clint Eastwood.

"Before Kaanapali, people didn’t think of Maui as a vacation destination," said Terryl Vencl, executive director of the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau. "It put Maui on the map. The Sheraton Maui brought in some of the first visitors on that United flight. These were the big guys, the celebrities who have a way of getting out messages for us."

Vieira, who worked as a tour escort in the 1970s, remembers when everyone on a typical escorted tour with a "puka-shell tour guide" first started wanting to go to Maui.

"They would go see the volcano on the Big Island and then fly to Kaanapali Beach for three to four days," he said. "Hawaii was already famous for Waikiki Beach and the beachboys, but it was Maui that branded the state as a luxury travel destination for those seeking an uncluttered beach getaway. The resort helped people understand that Waikiki was great, but Maui provided desirable alternatives."

When Sheraton Maui was first built, it had virtually no competitors, Vieira said. It was later joined by the Royal Lahaina Hotel, the Kaanapali Beach Hotel and the Maui Surf, now the Hemmeter-designed Westin.

"The (Chris) Hemmeter invasion, which also created the Hyatt Regency Maui, brought about a complete rebirth to Kaanapali," Vieira said. "That was the single biggest change since it opened. Then Marriott came in and then the time shares started."

By 1995 the aging Sheraton Maui was forced to close to complete an extensive $160 million renovation, Vieira said.

"It was showing its age and, with the coming of the Hemmeter resorts, needed to re-establish its positioning," he said. "We spent about $300,000 a room. That’s significant. It’s almost like building a new hotel. In the future we’ll probably spend less more often."

Today the resort still plays a significant role in Maui’s family, golf and romance markets, Vencl said.

"It’s a huge plus that they have lasted," she said. "Their master plan set the pace and tone for Maui tourism, and they’ve never stopped. They have continued to improve themselves by renovating and rebuilding."

The Sheraton Maui is one of the reasons that tourism in Maui today is one of the island’s three largest employers, and the industry itself pumps more than $3 billion in visitor spending into the island’s economy annually, Vencl said.

The role of Sheraton Maui in building Maui tourism has not diminished since the creation of newer planned resorts such as Wailea and Kapalua. While it’s no longer the biggest resort on Maui, its still one of the top 10 resort employers and continues to play a key role in Maui’s tourism economics, said Sheraton Maui General Manager Tetsuji Yama­zaki.

"Maui is still in recovery mode. However, we have a really good momentum from 2012 to 2013. Pace is up, and (future) booking is solid for the first half of the year," he said.

While Sheraton Maui may not be the top performing resort in Kaanapali, Yama­zaki said that the resort is unsurpassed from a historic standpoint. Locals and guests still delight in the iconic cliff-diving ceremony that the resort has held each night (weather permitting) at sunset since its opening, he said.

Since the beginning, Sheraton Maui has taken advantage of its location as the last hotel at the north end of Kaanapali closest to Black Rock, or Puu Kekaa as it is known to Native Hawaiians, to re-enact a feat by Maui’s revered King Kahekili, who dived off the cliff to prove his bravery. A diver carrying a torch mounts the cliff, throws the torch into the Pacific Ocean and then follows it into the water.

"The dive is a very unique part of our hotel. You cannot just be a cliff diver. The person that dives has a connection to the lineage of the family that is connected to Black Rock. This is an authentic experience that we love to share," Yama­zaki said.

John Postma, a certified public accountant from Laguna Beach, Calif., said he has seen the cliff dive more than a hundred times. But he never tires of the ceremony or of the resort that he has been visiting since 1968.

"When I graduated from college, my mom offered me $1,000 or a trip to the Sheraton Maui," Postma said. "I took the trip, and I’ve been coming back ever since."

The resort became so special to Postma and his mother, Mary, that she made him promise on her deathbed that he would return each Christmas to recall the memory of their happy times together.

"I’ve spent 38 Christmases there, but I’ve probably been to the resort more than 100 times," Postma said. "I go so often that the staff is like family to me. They are the friendliest people that you’ll ever meet. They know my name and I know their names. We stay in touch, and when I’m in town we get together. I’ve even been to the company Christmas parties."

Cheryl Takahashi, who has worked as a housekeeper at the resort for 42 years, identifies with Postma’s observations about the character of the people who work at Sheraton Maui.

"I love working here," Taka­ha­shi said of the resort, which paved the way to a better life after she left her husband and needed to find a way to support two children on her own.

While at the resort, Taka­ha­shi’s fondest memories are of meeting Chuck Norris and playing ball with him and other employees in the park, and of meeting her second husband, Bobby Taka­ha­shi, who worked as a houseman at the resort.

"This is my home away from home. Actually, this is my second home. My kids were brought up in this resort," Taka­ha­shi said. "Without it, my family wouldn’t have been able to get what we have today."