Subsidiary’s activity desk workers told jobs gone

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Consolidated Resorts Inc. appeared headed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, and employees of its activity desk subsidiary Lahaina Ticket Co. were told it was shutting down.

With calls to company managers in Maui and Las Vegas unreturned, it wasn't clear Wednesday what exactly was happening with the 27-year-old company that has operated a half dozen time-share resorts on Maui, other resorts in Hawaii and time-share developments in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

Only short notice was given, and later officials of the parent company, ASNY in Las Vegas, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that they would file for bankruptcy. A company principal, Ken Chupinsky, also told the Review-Journal that its time shares would continue operating under bankruptcy protection.

However, a letter sent to vendors on Maui said that "Consolidated Resorts Inc. and Lahaina Ticket Co. will cease all operations in the state of Hawaii."

The number of employees affected on Maui could not be learned immediately from company officials. A laid-off Lahaina Ticket employee estimated it had as many as 30 employees on Maui.

A notice from Carl Hardin, chief operating officer of Consolidated, said the total number of employees affected "may be 795." His list of business locations included many addresses in Nevada and one in Florida and three on Maui. However, one Maui address has not been occupied for years, and Consolidated's Web site listed seven time-share resorts on Maui, concentrated around Kahana, and others in Hawaii.

Apparently, this notice referred only to Consolidated's sales business, since its resorts were operating normally Wednesday. One Maui resort manager said she hadn't heard anything but rumors.

Jamie DeBrunner, corporate director of sales at Old Lahaina Luau, said she was informed that Lahaina Ticket will refund guests who are holding tickets for future reservations. "Then these guests will pay directly to the activity provider," she said.

Hardin's statement was labeled as the official notification of layoffs required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act. This requires 60 days' notice, although there are exemptions for "faltering companies" and "unforeseeable business circumstances."

"This action is immediate despite our efforts to obtain financing, which would have enabled the company to continue as a going concern," Hardin wrote.

Just after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, on what was his second day of training for his new job as a time-share and recreational activities salesman, Kihei resident Kevin Olson said he was told by his new boss to pack it in.

Lahaina Ticket and Consolidated had just filed for bankruptcy, Olson said he was told. The company was shuttering its activity sales booths in Lahaina and one in Kihei as well as its time-share showroom at the Sands of Kahana, Olson said.

Olson, 51, who is an independent contractor, had just taken the job with Lahaina Ticket after being recruited away from a rival company, where he had worked since 1993.

Competition immediately was fierce to latch on to one of the surviving time-share and activity companies on Maui, he said, estimating the number of Maui sales employees affected was 25 to 30.

In Las Vegas, Olson estimated that about 300 people lost their jobs on Tuesday. In Las Vegas, the estimate was 600, but neither figure could be confirmed.

Maui vendors were assured via e-mail from Lahaina Ticket General Manager Theresa "Tee" Shaffer that their bills would be paid from a trust account (required by Hawaii of activity sellers). She also thanked "vendors that have graciously supplied our booths with beautiful artworks" and said they were available to be reclaimed at the Front Street office.

Nathalie Sanders, spa director at Lei Spa at 505 Front St., said Wednesday that she was owed about $1,000 by Lahaina Ticket and she hoped to get it.

Lahaina Ticket "was not that big" as a source of customers, averaging around $1,000 every two months, but the income was important to her. She said Lahaina Ticket had until now been prompt about payments.

She also said that 505 Front St., listed by Hardin as a location involved in the mass layoffs, had not been operated by Lahaina Ticket for "about four years."

Lahaina Ticket has telephone listings for 878 Front St. and 4221 Lower Honoapiilani Highway. None of those addresses is listed in Hardin's notice, and the three addresses that are listed do not have listings in the Maui telephone directory.

The one address listed on Hardin's notice that does match up with a Consolidated resort is the Sands of Kahana, which was continuing to operate as of Wednesday night.

Consolidated's Web site lists seven resorts, but two are Sands of Kahana under different names. The others are Hono Koa, The Gardens of West Maui, Kahana Villa Resort, Maui Beach Resort and Maui Banyans Vacation Club. The latter two are in Kihei.

Consolidated did not own or manage all units in those condominiums, although it could not be learned how many it did have. Maui Banyans, for example, is under general management of Aston Hotels & Resorts.

Consolidated also lists among its resorts the Kona Islander on the Big Island and the Imperial Hawaii in Waikiki.

All the Maui resorts are long-existing developments and were not originally time shares. However, in Las Vegas, Consolidated is in the midst of constructing a large time share, called Tahiti. The Review-Journal obtained a statement from a principal of the company that said: "The scarcity of lenders in the time-share industry has made it impossible to continue the company."

That officer did not respond to an e-mailed query from The Maui News.

Consolidated is not a publicly traded company, so no Securities and Exchange Commission reports were required. In 2007, the company announced that it had taken as a partner a unit of Goldman Sachs, which had made a large investment, the size of which was not revealed then.

On Wednesday, GlobeSt. com, an online real estate news service, reported that investment was $372 million but had been written off last year.

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com. Staff Writer Chris Hamilton contributed to this report.