Comment taken for EIS for new hotel near Kahului Airport
Windward Hotel to be developed by R.D. Olson
An environmental impact statement is underway for the 200-room Windward Hotel proposed for a 5-acre site near Costco and the Kahului Airport.
R.D. Olson Development of Newport Beach, Calif., brought its plans for the hotel before the Maui Planning Commission last year. On Tuesday, a preparation notice for the hotel’s environmental impact statement was posted in the Office of Environmental Quality Control’s “The Environmental Notice.”
The four-story hotel would be geared toward business travelers and include on-site amenities, such as a swimming pool, dining area, sundry shop, laundry room, ballroom, boardroom business center and other support services.
It would occupy 5 acres of land in the Maui Business Park Phase II, which is owned by A&B Properties Inc. and is bordered by Haleakala Highway and Airport Access Road. R.D. Olson plans to acquire the hotel property from A&B Properties after the land use entitlement process is complete. Land in the business park is currently for sale, and several parcels already have been sold or are under construction.
Tony Wrzosek, vice president of planning and development for R.D. Olson, told the Maui Planning Commission in August that after seeing the success of the nearby Courtyard by Marriott, R.D. Olson believed that there was enough demand for another hotel in the area. R.D. Olson also developed and opened the Courtyard hotel in 2012.
“During our ownership, it maintained an extremely high percentage of occupancy, thus encouraging our office to look at further sites for a second hotel,” Wrzosek said at the time. “Based on the success of the Courtyard, we truly believe that there is a demand, an unmet demand, of more hotels of this type within this market adjacent to the airport.”
Early estimates last year put the cost of the hotel at $37.5 million.
Because the property is zoned for light industrial and does not allow for hotels, it requires a community plan amendment and hotel zoning. The project also is located within the special management area (the regulated area near the shoreline) and also will require an SMA permit.
R.D. Olson also developed the Residence Inn in Wailea and is working to get approvals for the 110-unit Hotel Ike located at 55 Gateway Place in Wailea. Hotel Ike is estimated to cost about $17.8 million, and construction is expected to take less than three years.
The deadline to comment on plans for the Windward Hotel is Feb. 7. Comments can be sent to the Maui Planning Commission and staff planner Tara Furukawa by phone at 270-8205, by email at tara. furukawa@mauicounty.gov or by mail at 2200 Main St., Suite 619, Wailuku 96793.