Mana Kai/5 Palms Restaurant/Keawakapu Beach
After a very nice flight from Oahu on Hawaiian Airlines, Wendy picked us up at the airport, where we headed to Kai Malu to grab my car, and then off to meet with Michael Scott at the Mana Kai resort and 5 Palms Restaurant. Here we had a beautiful table reserved, with lovely vistas looking out to Keawakapu beach, Molokini and Kaho’olawe. It was a spectacular meal, crowned by my beautiful piece of Onaga, and the boys seemed to enjoy catching back up with Michael after our visit to Tokyo earlier this year to meet with RE/MAX Japan, whom Yoshi is representing on this very trip. The hour was filled with great team spirit and camaraderie, plus it was so nice to get together and enjoy a tasty lunch before Michael had to head out to Hana.
Kilohana Waena & Kilohana Ridge
From there, we were going to start a very fast paced day of looking at projects and properties. The first one was just across the street from Keawakapu, a project Takeshi and I worked together on over 10 years ago. I represented Allen Brown, Takeshi represented Joseph Zilber of Towne Realty Group, and we were tasked with getting 73 homes sold for this community that would be named Kilohana Ridge. We worked with architects to ensure some Hawaiian features were highlighted, like split-pitch roofs as well as some coral and faux lava fixtures. When all was said and done, the houses came out especially nice and we completely sold that neighborhood out in 2003! We toured that whole community and noticed a lack of for sale signs which can mean only one thing, there must be a bunch of happy homeowners! From there we walked over one street to Kilohana Waena, a new neighborhood I am representing that features land parcels with ocean views towards Kaho’olawe and Molokini.
Makena Landing/7131 Makena Road/Maluaka
From Kilohana, we headed south towards Makena Landing—a beautiful piece of coastline, with rugged lava rocks spilling out into the blue Pacific. It’s a perfect spot to kayak, stand up paddle board, snorkel and scuba. Families also like to gather here on weekends for picnics and potlucks. From there, we stopped off at a parcel that formally was supposed to be condos, but now designated single family residences, known as Maluaka. This is something that’s going to be an incredible new project from the developer of the uber luxurious Kukio on the Big Island, and will be most likely one of the first places they start as all the infrastucture is already in place.
There’s also big plans going on with the old Makena Prince Resort, now the Maui Beach Resort. I’ve heard conversations that theyll be turning the old hotel into about 50 ultra high end condos and building another resort as well.
Next, it was off to our listing at 7131 Makena Rd. This 5 bed/5 bath, 5000 square foot house sits on 2 acres of private, ocean view land. I mentioned to Yoshi a property like this is going to be in high demand come winter, as there are not a lot of luxury homes for sale of this size or qulity in our marketplace. It truly is an estate like setting and will be a treasured legacy property for its next owners.
Makena (“Big”) Beach
After that, it was off to one of the best beaches on Maui, and arguably all of the world, Makena (“Big”) Beach. The views looking towards Molokini and Kaho’olawe are bar none, and it’s the perfect recreational beach for skimboarding, bodyboarding, volleyball, and sand castle building—making it a favorite among locals and visitors alike. We were lucky that in the 1980’s, the beach was preserved by a group called SPAM (State Park At Makena), to be kept untouched for future generations. This is awesome for everyone as they’ll be able to experience this tremendous stretch of sand in all its natural glory for decades to come.
Keawala’i Church/New Luxury Residential Condos
From the beach, it was back towards Makena Landing where we stopped at Keawala’i Church, a favorite Hawaiian church of mine. This is the parish of Reverend Alika, and people from all over the world go to his services fronting the water. We’ve had a relationship with Alika for many years now, and are very proud to announce that he is actually performing the ceremony at my oldest son Anthony’s wedding this coming January! He has also done a number of traditional blessings for us—whether it be new neighborhoods, models or office openings, he comes and talks about the importance of the native culture and ‘aina by preserving both and being respectful, and then finishes with a ancient Hawaiian chant.
We then walked just south down the street and noticed a rather large job site next to the Makena Resort where there are 4 new residential condos that are being constructed by a developer from Canada. These look like they will be fantastic new residences, and should be priced around the $10 million range. They’re coming right along and the quality of construction looks very high, with locally sourced materials, like lava rock columns and coral motifs. Furthermore, a local artist friend of ours, Larry Padilla, will be doing a lot of the iron work on the homes and surrounding property out of brass and copper, so I’ll be very much looking forward to seeing the finishes that he puts together. These will be tremendous sunset view properties next to a resort that itself will be converted into high end luxury condos. There’s no set price range yet, but we’ve heard whispers that they should be in the $4-10 million range.