A third limited-service hotel is positioned to pop up in Kapolei and expand the burgeoning visitor accommodations on the horizon for Oahu’s "Second City."
The master developer of the 40-acre Leihano community anchored by senior housing has a contract to sell 2.5 acres for development of a 180-room Embassy Suites hotel by Utah-based Kapolei Hotel Partners LLC.
The sale is expected to be completed this summer if permitting for the hotel is obtained.
"We’re very excited about this project," said M.J. Ritschel, a vice president with Leihano’s California-based master developer, Kisco Senior Living. "It’s going to be a wonderful addition to Kapolei."
The Embassy Suites project is the third hotel planned for the area.
In November plans were floated for a 150-room business hotel on 3.5 acres next to the state Judiciary complex in downtown Kapolei. The parcel is being sold by an affiliate of James Campbell Co. to Irvine, Calif.-based R.D. Olson Development.
This project is in an early stage and in November had no development timetable.
In December the developer of the planned Ka Makana Ali‘i shopping center in East Kapolei announced that Hampton Inn & Suites will manage a 175-room hotel at that project. Construction on the hotel is projected to start in the middle of this year.
Ritschel said a hotel at Leihano will complement the community, which so far is shaping up with senior housing, a church and retail.
An initial phase with 84 rental apartments for seniors called ‘Ilima at Leihano is under construction on 7 acres and is expected to be finished by the end of the year.
A 55,000-square-foot C.S. Wo furniture store is expected to break ground by June. Other pieces of Leihano include a First Hawaiian Bank branch and a St. Jude Parish church on 11 acres.
To date roughly 20 acres of the 40-acre community has been committed for development.
