KS in negotiations for Volcano Golf Course lease

Kamehameha Schools is in negotiations with an undisclosed party to take over the lease for the Volcano Golf Course and Country Club.

Last year, the previous lessee of the 156-acre golf course unexpectedly abandoned the property four years before the termination of the lease.

That lessee — a Kailua-Kona-based corporation called Hawaiian International Sporting Club evidently run by Shigeyuki Tachibana — announced its dissolution last April, leaving the future of the property uncertain.

Kamehameha Schools, which owns the property and has leased it to various managers since 1969, has since regained control of the golf course property — after an abortive lawsuit against HISC — and began accepting bid proposals for new lessees in August.

On Thursday, Kamehameha Schools spokeswoman Crystal Kua said it has received proposals from “a handful” of interested parties and currently is in negotiations with one particular party for a long-term lease of the property.

The lessee will be responsible for reopening golf operations and restoring course amenities.

However, Kua said the terms of the negotiations and the name of the interested party cannot be disclosed until the process is complete, and that there currently is no date by which negotiations are expected to be complete.

The property includes both the 18-hole golf course and the remains of the Country Club, which was gutted in a fire in November 2019 and has never been removed or repaired.

Since HISC abandoned the lease, no play has taken place on the course.

Golf courses statewide were closed for much of last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Tachibana claimed in letters to Kamehameha Schools that the impact of the pandemic was part of his reason for abandoning the lease.

Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.