By ERIN MILLER
By ERIN MILLER
Stephens Media
A mainland-based developer has completed the purchase of 52 lots from The Club at Hokulia.
The Club General Manager John Shaw said Monday Sun Kona Properties LLC, an investment firm related to SunChase Holdings out of Arizona and California, purchased the lots. Shaw declined to provide a sales price, noting the purchase agreement laid out a series of infrastructure and amenities Sun Kona agreed to fund. Shaw said he won’t know the dollar value of that work until it is completed, possibly several years from now.
Multiple attempts, via phone messages and email, to reach SunChase Vice President Duane Grimsman over the course of a week were unsuccessful.
Shaw said he was excited to have the sale closed.
“They have a tremendous amount of experience in master planned communities,” Shaw said.
He said officials have already begun filing some applications with the planning design review committee, and said depending on permit approvals, work on some of the amenities could begin in about a year, with 12 to 18 months needed to complete the work.
In addition to committing to the funding for the infrastructure, including expanding the wastewater treatment plant, and amenities — a clubhouse, fitness center/spa, locker rooms, swimming pools and tennis courts — Sun Kona also provided funding to cover The Club’s operating losses, Shaw said.
“After a decade of economic and legal delays, the current and future members of Hokulia will finally begin to experience the original vision of a family-oriented luxury community which embraces the local culture with the most natural home sites in all of Hawaii,” Club President Doug Rhymes said in a prepared statement Monday.
Shaw said Sun Kona did not pay a quarter of one percent fee, as outlined in the 2006 settlement agreement with a number of parties, including 1250 Oceanside Partners, Hawaii County, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the state Health Department, Protect Keopuka Ohana, Chuck Flaherty, Pat Cunningham and Michele Wilkins. Shaw said that fee, intended to fund the Hokulia Foundation, only applies to the sale of individual lots.
Flaherty disagreed.
“The settlement speaks for itself,” he said. “Those amounts are due.”
The settlement agreement said the agreement and its terms “shall … be binding upon each of the parties hereto and each and all of their respective successors, assignees, buyers, grantees, vendees or transferees, and their past or present, direct or indirect, affiliates, partners, joint venturers, subsidiaries, parents, representatives, receivers, trustees, officers, directors, employees, agents, shareholders, members and elected and appointed officials and each of them, as though they were were parties hereto, wherever located.”
Sun Kona, according to the state’s Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, is a limited liability corporation. It filed its registration with the state Feb. 4, and the address of the registrant is the same Scottsdale, Ariz., as SunChase Holdings. One member is listed on the members and managers page, Sun Kona Ventures LLC. That company filed a business registration with Hawaii Jan. 30, and also has an Arizona address. Sun Kona Ventures’ two members are Sunchase Kona LLC and LAK Avenue Investments LLC. Sunchase Kona filed a name registration with the state Dec. 6. That registration expires April 5.
Hokulia is the name of the luxury coastal development south of Keauhou. Legal issues bogged down construction on the project, and the recent economic downturn took its financial toll on former developer Lyle Anderson. A recent court ruling ordered a bond holder to surrender bond funds for the construction of a bypass highway from the bottom of Halekii Street to Napoopoo Road.