Jeremiah Littlepage started a new business on Lanai geared to tourists about a year ago — a seemingly bad time in hindsight given that both of the luxury hotels on the island closed this year.

Fortunately for Littlepage, who moved to Lanai from Colorado in 2011, a year before billionaire Larry Ellison bought 98 percent of the island, he didn’t invest too heavily in his business.

Littlepage started the guided downhill bicycle tour company Lanai Cycles, offering two descents from Lanai City totaling 16 miles.

The former Lodge at Koele employee runs Lanai Cycles out of his house with six bikes and a four-door truck for uphill transport. Given that there are few activities on Lanai with the hotels closed, the business has attracted some of the relatively few visitors coming to the island. However, Littlepage expects bookings will speed up after the much-improved Manele Bay Hotel reopens in February, especially because Ellison’s purchase generated an incredible amount of awareness about Lanai.

“It’s a good thing,” Littlepage said. “He put Lanai on the map. There’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Former resident returns for jobs

Lavina Inaba was born on Lanai and left after finishing high school in 1997. She returned about two years ago as one of a growing number of Lanai natives who are returning to find new job opportunities created by Ellison.

Inaba took an administrative job supporting Pulama Lanai’s transportation fleet services but also took an interest in learning about beekeeping, which Pulama envisions as being a key component for re-establishing commercial agriculture on the island and growing organic crops for export.

Pulama started with one hive inherited from a longtime Lanai resident, and now has five hives in an apiary operation headed by Inaba.

“They’re such a fascinating insect,” she said.