The new owners and managers of the 1,800-acre Makena Beach and Golf Resort are making plans for substantial revitalization that will change its focus from an uber-luxury resort to one with broader community appeal.

Majority owner AREA Property Partners, an international real estate investor and fund manager that was one of the property’s original lenders, said yesterday it had assumed ownership of the resort along with Trinity Investments LLC and Standford Carr Development, ending the foreclosure process.

The lender group’s $95 million credit bid surpassed a $55 million credit offer from Wells Fargo Bank, the trustee of the mortgage lending trust that foreclosed on the property last September. The lending trust had been owed more than $192 million in principal plus interest and other costs on its mortgage loan.

The resort, which is located on the southern shore of Maui, includes a 310-room hotel, two 18-hole Robert Trent Jones Jr. championship golf courses and 1,300 acres of land with entitlements for residential development.

With the ownership transfer complete, the new owners now begin the challenge of repositioning the property for success in Maui’s competitive resort market.

Makena was almost shuttered last year after former owner Everett Dowling elected to walk away from a $575 million loan that included investment from Honolulu-based Trinity Investments and Morgan Stanley Real Estate. Dowling, who had acquired the resort from the financially strapped Seibu Group of Japan, had planned to turn the property into one of Hawaii’s most luxurious resort developments but abandoned plans amid dropping tourism levels and a tightening financial market.

The infusion of new capital and business expertise will be good for the Makena Resort and for Maui’s hotel market, said Joe Toy, president and chief executive officer of hotel consultancy Hospitality Advisors LLC.

AREA and Trinity have long been active in Hawaii’s luxury resort market. "These players are a strong team with the right expertise," Toy said. "They also are people who are committed to the island."

AREA and Trinity own the Kahala Hotel and Resort on Oahu and previously owned Maui’s Fairmont Kea Lani Resort and the Embassy Suites Kaanapali. Their partner, Landmark, currently manages the Kahala and previously managed the Embassy Suites Maui as well as the former Kea Lani Hotel & Resort. Landmark said yesterday it has been appointed to manage the Makena resort.

Since hotel maintenance and development of the resort’s vacant lands were deferred during the last two ownership cycles, Toy said repositioning will be a long-term project requiring much patience and capital.

AREA worked with the lender from the start of foreclosure to ensure that the hotel stayed open and guests continued to enjoy the resort experience, said Bradford Wildauer, AREA partner.

"Over the last year, many parties including the receiver, the lending trust and its agents and the hotel management company made extraordinary efforts to stabilize the hotel operations and position it for a transition to long-term ownership," Wildauer said. "In assuming ownership of the property, AREA and our partners are expanding our commitment to the resort, its employees and guests. We plan to revitalize Makena so that it continues to be a premier destination resort."

While Dowling had planned to replace the hotel with another and build out the acreage with luxury residential development, the new owners will update the existing hotel striving for about a four-star level, Wildauer said.

"The prior owners had a vision that fit a different economic time," he said. "We are looking for a vision that fits the current economic time."

By the end of this year or the beginning of next, the team plans to reopen nine holes at the south golf course and be ready to present a redevelopment plan that may include affordable residential housing and public access, said Carr, who joined the project because of his long-standing relationship with Trinity Investments and his affinity for Maui, where he was born and raised.

"We believe Makena is a special place but it shouldn’t be exclusive or only for the rich and famous," Carr said. "We want it to be accessible to everyone. The topography and characteristics of the land give us the opportunity to create diverse housing."

In addition to working on the hotel’s physical plant, investors will work with the hotel’s union employees and managers to improve guest experiences, said Shawn Sweeney, Landmark’s senior vice president of operations, who will oversee Makena.

"While this will not be an immediate refurbishment, we intend to make a guest experience difference with the resources we have," Sweeney said.

"The resort has always had a tradition of service, and the employees have gone through so much uncertainty in the past few years."