Maui Real Estate & Development

Looking for a vacation rental in Maui, Hawaii? You’ve found it!  The Kula Kottage is a 2 bedroom 1 bath home nestled at 3,500 feet above sea level in the charming area of Kula, Upcountry.  From Kula, you have easy access to so much more than if you stayed on the coast.  You’re 12 miles from the airport, 12 miles from the beach, and only 4 miles to Makawao town.  You’re also closer to Haleakala National Park than are most other Kula Accommodations.

Another BIG plus to staying upcountry while visiting Maui: TEMPERATURE!!  We love that with the elevation comes lower temperatures.  During the summer in Maui, you’ll find yourself sweating like crazy (even at night) if you stay by the beach.  At the Kula Kottage, you can spend the day in the warmth of the coast, then retire to your own cool, little cabin with 180 degree views of the island and ocean.

Call (808) 575-9575 to book your home away from home before availability runs out for 2011-2012!

Recently, more and more focus has been put on the harbor area at Maalaea for proposed development.  This encompasses everything from new large real estate projects to new Algae farming for power.

Ohana Kai is one of the new proposed real estate projects at Maalaea.  There is a log to controversy over this property due to ecological impact from drainage as well as traffic issues.

The Algae plant would be the first fully functioning Algae power plant in the world.  They been testing the possibility on the Big Island, but if it gets the go ahead, this new power plant would supply much of the energy needed for Maui.

The photo above was taken at Maalaea Harbor next to the Island Star Maui sailing Yacht.  Maalaea Harbor is home to dozens of high-quality vessels at a great location.   The location is primarily why there is so much interest in building around this area.

The following are some photos taken by Natalie Brown Photography of a luxury Maui estate between Polo Beach and White Rock.  The home is near completion but needed some photos taken to help rent it in an upcoming charity auction.  If you need photos taken of your Maui property, please inquire about Natalie Brown’s Maui Real Estate Photography.

Aloha and welcome!  Here at Maui Real Estate & Development Blog, we’ve decided to open up posting to Maui Realtors as well as Maui Developers for FREE!  We will continue posting about Maui real estate, but we now want to offer this site to other Maui Professionals.

What you need to do:

1. Email us at the above address in red.  Let us know that you’re serious about writing blog post(s).
2. In the Right Column of this page, at the bottom you’ll see a REGISTER link under Subscribe.  Click.
3. Register.  We will then accept you within 24-48 hours.
4. Write Blog Post(s).

Rules for Writing:

• You may only write about Maui related subjects.  We prefer only Maui Real Estate and Maui Development posts.  These can include a home for sale, new project in development, Maui news, or any other related subject.
• You MAY NOT write solely to promote yourself our your company.  This means the post must have some substance.
• The post must be at least a paragraph long.
• Grammar and Spelling must be checked before submitting.
• The post MAY NOT be duplicate content from another website.
• Only 2 links per post.  These links must be Maui related.
• PHOTOS: They must be saved for web.  We don’t want people posting huge files.

If all of this is done, your post will be accepted and posted.  If not, you will be deleted as a user immediately.

Why are we doing this?

Our site gets over 1,000 visitors per month and growing.  We’ve projected that this site will hit 3,000 in less than a year.  It takes quite a lot of time to promote this site, and we need your help in posting relevant, helpful Maui information.  This is a great way for you to promote your business, real estate, development, or any other Maui subject.  We’re open to any relevant topic.  Please don’t write short, crappy posts; you will be deleted forever.  Mahalo!

Wells Fargo, trustee for the registered holders of the commercial mortgage securities of which secured the property, filed a foreclosure lawsuit on Monday.  Everett Dowling and Morgan Stanley’s partnership, created to purchase the 1,800 acre resort, owes $192.5 million in principal, interest and late charges.

Dowling Company and Morgan Stanley bought the resort and hotel just a little over 2 years ago from Seibu Group of Japan.  Though the future of Makena Resort is uncertain, Dowling Co. is moving forward with its other Makena Project called Maluaka.  This development has been considerably altered in plans from 69 luxury condominium units to 13 custom homes and a club house.

To read more about this latest Maui Real Estate News, see the BizJournal Article.

UPDATE:

Maui Prince Resort to Stay Open with Name Change!

The Maui Prince Hotel will now be called the Makena Beach and Golf Resort.

Prince Resort Hawaii told the public that it would be shutting down the Maui Prince in 2 weeks, but Wells Fargo bank, trustee of the resort, countered this statement by saying they will keep it open and that funds have been made available to pay off vendors and suppliers that were owed as well as continue payroll.

Management will need to be restructured as the Maui Prince Resort has been showing around a 1 million dollar loss per month.

The Maui News headline on August 23, 2009 indicated that the construction industry has significantly slowed down.  There was a 38% drop in the issuance of building permits as compared to last year (Article Title: Builders ‘Banking on’ Big Projects that are on Hold). This article fans the flame of frustration I am feeling right now regarding the delay of issuance of one building permit we are hoping to get to get our workers working instead of being laid off or sent back home without pay because there’s no work.

I do not like whining and complaining about the County of Maui’s inefficiency when it comes to the permitting process. I usually try to put myself in their shoes, to try to understand where they are coming from. I know how working on documents and paperwork goes – I am an administrative assistant, an office manager, and a project coordinator rolled into one. I know it’s not easy. I try to maintain a good rapport with the County Clerks. And I think for the most part, I am doing a good job.

But this past 3 days had been very frustrating. I was waiting upon one building permit to undergo its final review and be issued, and every time I stop by the permit office to follow up I was met with a question “Have you been called yet?; because if not, your permit is not ready yet.” The permit was filed in May of 2009. The agencies all signed off as of August 18, 2009. All we need now is the final review and the permit can be issued. It has been seven days since August 18 and the permit is still not issued. My estimate is that this final review can be done in 15 to 30 minutes per building permit application depending on how complicated it is. Granting that there were other building permits before us (I was told there were about 5 or 8), it still would not take 7 days (ok, 5 working days) to do a final review. I had seen them do this final review. I used to be able to wait. One of the building permit staff, before she was transferred to Plans Review section, used to be able to process 5 final reviews in front of me with no problems at all. Then why is one building permit taking such a long time to be issued?

The thing is, I am not even “pushing” this for my own self. I was pleading to get this building permit issued so that our workers and subcontractors can continue doing their jobs without being laid off. As I read another article on Maui News about “Regulations seen as crushing burden on Hawaii business” I cannot help but nod my head as I think about this one building permit application I am waiting on.

It’s 9:55 AM on August 25, 2009 right now. The question is “do I call the building permit department to once again follow-up on this one building permit?” If I stop by their office, I am pretty sure that I would be met with a sigh and a question and a remark: “have you been called? if you have not been called yet, that means your building permit is not ready yet”. Sigh! I guess I would just have to wait. In the meantime, it’s good to be able to vent.

***

UPDATE:  Building Department called at 10:23AM – permit ready for pick-up. I guess venting on a blog works. It took a week for this “final review” to get done.  We have several more building permit applications pending – we’ll see how those will go.

The Maui Island General Plan provides a guide for the future growth of the island to the year 2030. The Maui Island Plan establishes a vision and a set of long-range guiding principles, goals, objectives, policies and maps to guide the growth and development of the island.

At this time, this Maui Island General Plan is in the “stage 2″ of the review process.  First, the Planning Director took the recommendation of the GPAC (General Plan Advisory Committee). Second the Planning Director’s original draft as well as the newly revised draft with GPAC recommendation are reviewed by the Maui Planning Commission. So far the Maui Planning Commission  had 3 meetings on this already.  A few more meetings are scheduled with the Maui Planning Commission before they finalize their own recommendations regarding the location and amount of future growth for Maui. If you are interested to come, below are the dates, time and location:

August 4, 2009 from 1:30 PM to 8 PM in the Lahaina Civic Center

August 18, 2009 from 9AM to 5 PM in the Planning Department Conference Room

August 25, 2009 from 9AM to 5 PM in the Planning Department Conference Room

This Maui Real Estate And Development Blog will feature the Maui Island General Plan.  A series of posts are coming up here on this topic for us to weigh in on this very important decision for the Maui Island.  Stay tuned and looking forward to your comments.

On June 24th, 2009, a small town public forum was held at the Good Shepherd Church Hall in Wailuku, Maui.  The WMSA (Wailuku Main Street Association) Tri-Isle Main Street Resource Center hosted the event to further educate about the community-based issues of the new plan.  The program, “Maui Island Plan: How It Effects You,” was held for discussion between Maui County representatives, community stakeholders, and the public.

This meeting comes after the Draft Maui Island Plan was received for review on April 21st.  The Planning Commission was given 150 days to review and modify it before passing it on to the Maui County Council.

Members of the panel expressed concern about loss of small town identity.  With 1 policy to act over all areas, it was argued, there will be incongruent policy.  Different areas require different approaches. Examples were cited like the differences between growing industrial towns like Kahului and small farming communities like Kula.

Community leader Jan Yagi Buen explained that the overall problem with the new plan was that it is massive in comparison to the 1990 plan, something that would be difficult to modify.

Other issues with the plan are the lack of specifics in allocating water as well as the protection of diminishing agricultural lands.

A major foreseeable problem in Maui’s future is a lack of education and future jobs.  Once our kids graduate from High School, there’s really not much available to them on Maui.

Long Range Senior Administrator John Summers said, “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us still.”