Makaha Valley resort developer is headed for liquidation

A company that has been trying to turn Makaha Valley into a resort with help from golf legend Tiger Woods has filed for bankruptcy.

The filing by Canadian firm Pacific Links US Holdings Inc. and seven affiliates last week throws the ambitious $300 million project into further uncertainty following a failed 2019 effort to sell the Makaha lands.

Pacific Links announced its plan five years ago to establish a new resort in Makaha Valley as part of a joint venture with local real estate developer Stanford Carr.

The project was touted as a “rebirth” of an original vision for the valley held by local businessman Chinn Ho, who opened the 200-room Makaha Resort and Spa hotel in 1969 along with two golf courses but never realized his bigger development goal for more of the valley.

Pacific Links said in 2016 that its plan, which allows for as many as 766 visitor accommodation units and homes on 644 acres, would provide more than 500 jobs in the economically distressed area while incorporating Hawaiian cultural values, replenishing groundwater resources, preventing erosion, removing invasive species, restoring taro patches, protecting heiau and maintaining Makaha Beach.

But the company, which has leadership ties to China and a Canadian parent that sells memberships for play at over 500 participating golf courses worldwide to customers largely in China, has had geopolitical troubles in recent years getting money out of China to realize its plan for Makaha Valley.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit last year and exacerbated difficulties for parent Pacific Links International.

Two foreclosure lawsuits involving Makaha Valley were pending against Pacific Links US when it filed bankruptcy in Honolulu.

“It’s just unfortunate,” said Carr, who was hired by Pacific Links to manage the Makaha property and carry out development but is not involved in the bankruptcy case.

Carr predicts that someone will eventually proceed with the project because the property is the only land on Oahu that can become a new large-scale resort without rezoning.

“It’s got a lot of potential,” he said. “The project will survive.”

According to the bankruptcy filing, Pacific Links values its Makaha property, which is the company’s sole asset and includes one operating golf course, at around $47 million.

The company reported total debt between $50 million and $100 million.

Under bankruptcy, Pacific Links intends to maintain Makaha golf operations with about 15 existing employees.

Company President Wei Zhou proposes lending Pacific Links up to $250,000 to maintain the property and pay for expenses in the Chapter 11 case.

Chuck Choi, a local bankruptcy attorney representing the company, said Pacific Links anticipates selling its Makaha property to pay off creditors.

“A (buyer) presumably would be interested in following the master plan,” he said.

Pacific Links established operations in Hawaii around 2009 through the acquisition of Kapolei Golf Club for $31 million. The company expanded by acquiring Olomana Golf Course in Waimanalo and operating the Royal Hawaiian Golf Club in Kailua. It also unsuccessfully attempted to buy the Royal Kaanapali and Kaanapali Kai golf courses on Maui.

The company also acquired several mainland golf courses, but no longer owns any properties except for the Makaha lands.

Pacific Links acquired its initial stake in Makaha Valley in 2011 with the purchase of the Makaha Golf Club West for $2.5 million, and intended to reopen the course in 2014 after an overhaul by Greg Norman Golf Course Design. This project wasn’t completed and the course remains closed.

In 2013 Pacific Links acquired much of the balance of its Makaha holdings, including the still-operating Makaha Valley Country Club formerly known as Makaha East, and the old hotel that was razed in 2014.

After announcing its new plan in 2016, the company unveiled its agreement with Woods in 2019 and began work on an initial phase for 154 condominium-hotel units and 260 single-family homes on about 60 acres nestled between the western course, to be redesigned by Woods, and the eastern course, to be redesigned by Hanse Golf Course Design.

Carr presented those plans at a community meeting in early 2019, but later that year Pacific Links engaged commercial real estate firm CBRE to sell the Makaha property for $35 million. Pacific Links said it received strong interest that was upset by COVID-19 early last year.

Since then two creditors have sought to repossess certain Makaha Valley parcels.

In one case two companies affiliated with Towne Realty Inc. that sold some Makaha land to Pacific Links in 2015 filed a foreclosure lawsuit in March alleging that Pacific Links defaulted on a $6 million obligation. Recently, a judge appointed a commissioner to sell the land. The bankruptcy stalls such a sale.

The other foreclosure lawsuit was filed last month by a Chinese hedge fund that loaned $600 million to a company majority-owned by Sha Du, a Chinese national who controls the Pacific Links golf membership network.

The hedge fund obtained a mortgage on some of the Makaha property as collateral for the loan.

Du, a resident of Canada, founded and sold a retail chain in China and is ranked by Forbes as having a net worth of $1 billion.