Developer opts to sell Makaha property to golf firm

Local developer Jeff Stone inked a deal Friday to sell Makaha Valley Country Club to a golf course investment firm less than a year after he canceled a plan to donate the property to Kamehameha Schools and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for education and affordable housing.

Pacific Links Hawaii, a company with operations run by Micah Kane, a Kamehameha Schools trustee and former DHHL director, is the buyer. Pacific Links and parent company Pacific Links International are wholly owned by Chinese entrepreneur and Canadian citizen Du Sha, founder of the 97-store Home World Group, based in China.

A purchase price was not disclosed by Stone or Pacific Links.

Jeff Stone:
The local developer
will sell Makaha Valley
Country Club to a golf
course investment firm

Pacific Links said it plans upgrades for the 18-hole course known as Makaha East that could begin as early as the fall, and that it anticipates retaining all 40 employees. The course will remain open during renovations.

The company also owns the neighboring 18-hole Makaha Golf Course West, which it closed for renovations in May. That course is expected to reopen in late 2014 but will not be integrated with Makaha East.

"The East and West courses will maintain distinct identities," the company said in a statement.

Stone and Kane said in the announcement that they expect new ownership will enhance the valley and its surrounding community. But some residents are still pained by the bigger loss of the more than $100 million project previously envisioned for the 300-acre Makaha East property.

With great fanfare, Stone announced two years ago that he would give the property to Kamehameha Schools and DHHL for development of a "learning community" with 400 homes for Native Hawaiians and educational enrichment programs for Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian children ranging from preschoolers to young adults along the Leeward Coast.

Stone presented a signed grant at the April 2010 ceremony in Gov. Linda Lingle’s office and emphasized that the donation was unconditional. "This is a pure gift to Kamehameha Schools and DHHL with no strings attached," he said at the ceremony. "This will change the lives of future generations of this community."

However, a legally binding agreement to donate the land included some cancellation rights reserved by Stone. In June, Stone notified Kamehameha Schools and DHHL that he was terminating the agreement.

Stone blamed the two other entities for failing to take the gift. Kamehameha Schools and DHHL acknowledged there was a delay but insisted they were ready, willing and able to accept the land last year.

Some observers speculated at the time that Stone preferred to sell the property.

A Pacific Links spokes­woman said "serious conversations about acquisitions of Makaha East began in December of 2011."

Kane, who attended the gift ceremony as a Kamehameha Schools trustee and still holds that position, joined Pacific Links as chief operating officer in November.

Pacific Links CEO Bruce Simmonds is the founder of ClubLink, Canada’s largest owner and operator of golf clubs.

Pacific Links Hawaii, formerly known as Hawaiian Golf Properties, bought the Makaha West course in April 2011. The company also owns Kapolei Golf Course and operates the former Luana Hills course in Kailua, now known as Royal Hawaiian Golf Club.

Pacific Links also owns or controls the Southern Highlands Golf Club in Las Vegas, Pete Dye Golf Club in West Virginia, and is developing a 36-hole golf resort with high-end homes in Tian­jin, China.