Lingle: Buy Oahu Resort

Gov. Linda Lingle, in a surprise ending to her state of the state address Tuesday, said Hawaii should buy a luxury resort on the north shore of Oahu.

Buying the Turtle Bay resort is the best way to resolve a long-running controversy about its planned expansion, Lingle told lawmakers.

The owners of the resort have entitlements in place that would permit it to expand far beyond the existing 500-room hotel, but those plans are controversial on the island’s largely rural north shore.

While there are tens of thousands of hotel rooms on Oahu, nearly all of them are in the Honolulu neighborhood of Waikiki. Turtle Bay is one of only two large resorts on the island outside the Honolulu urban area. It’s about 45 miles from Waikiki on the opposite side of the island.

By purchasing the 850-acre resort, the state could keep the existing facility — and the jobs it provides — in place without worries about expansion, according to the governor.

“The north shore is an important escape valve for Oahu’s increasingly urbanized lifestyle,” Lingle said. “It is a place we take visitors when we want them to experience the ‘real’ Hawaii.”

Her proposal came as a surprise, even to the Turtle Bay developers, Kuilima Resort Co., according to published reports. Kuilima is also struggling to finance its own expansion plan.

Details of the buyout remain to be determined, Lingle said.

“I have thought about at least a dozen ways we could mix and match revenue streams to finance such a purchase,” she said, including selling the developed portion of the property to pay down the debt, exchanging other state lands, and creatively using tax credits.

“I know that there are many other ideas, but the point is that I believe this is both doable and essential to protect our way of life,” Lingle said.

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