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The PGA’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions, which tees off Thursday at Kapalua and is televised to shivering viewers in snow-covered regions across the nation, certainly is a boon for Maui tourism, but there also is a real estate effect.
“Oftentimes, we get phone calls from people watching the telecast asking, ‘You got anything available?’ especially if there’s bad weather on the Mainland,” said Realtor Roy Sakamoto on Tuesday. “You’ll have people watching TV and say, ‘God, we gotta get out of here.’ Hopefully, it’s sunny this year.”
“There’s a lot of activity and a lot of people interested” during the world-class golf event, he said.
Sakamoto, president of Sakamoto Properties, said phone calls and interest in Kaanapali and Kapalua properties kick up 40 to 50 percent during the tournament, with many calls coming after the tournament has ended. He said it is difficult to translate the increased interest into a sales figure “because there’s a lot of residual effect.”
“People will say I watched the tournament last month or a year ago, so it’s hard to say it directly led to 50 percent more sales,” he said.
A look at single-family residential sales in Kapalua in the first six months of 2015 show that eight of the 10 sales through November came in the first six months. In 2014, five of the seven sales were recorded in the first six months of the year. One home sold for $4.7 million in 2014.
Kapalua and Maui were “put on the map” by the PGA champions event that began in 1999, said Sakamoto. This year, the tournament on the Kapalua Plantation Course will tee off with world No. 1 Jordan Spieth and No. 2 Jason Day on the course.
The tournament start also means that Sakamoto will be busy. He said the tournament has helped the company’s exposure to Mainland and foreign markets and has expanded its clientele. Sakamoto Properties has clients from 14 foreign countries and 39 states. Its listings range from $20 million homes to $95,000 condos.
Sakamoto’s notoriety in the golf community, especially in Kapalua, grew when he helped manage Maui Land & Pineapple Co.’s sale of the Plantation Course in 2009 and the Bay Course a year later. The courses were sold for $50 million and $24 million, respectively, to one of the wealthiest men in Japan, Tadashi Yanai.
Yanai, whose net-worth is $18.3 billion, is the founder and president of Fast Retailing, a Japanese retailing company. He was listed as the 41st richest person in the world in 2015, according to Forbes.
Sakamoto said he still has a business relationship with Yanai, who is spending “more and more time” on the island.
“He loves it here,” Sakamoto said of Yanai, who has a house on the Plantation Course. “He plays golf every morning when he comes so he gets out at 7, 7:30 in the morning and finishes around noon and goes home for lunch.”
Yanai visits three to four times a year for a little over a week and sometimes brings his board members and senior executives to the island for golf and to brainstorm ideas, Sakamoto said.
“It’s not an asset he really publicizes,” he said of the golf course properties. “The purpose of buying the golf course was because it was falling into a little disrepair because ML&P was experiencing some economic hardship so when the opportunity came to buy it, he jumped on it.
“He’s not so concerned about the bottom line as much as the quality of the course. The worst thing that could happen is if someone played the golf course and said it’s terrible.”
Sakamoto Properties has an information desk outside the pro shop of the Plantation Course. “That’s been going nuts during tournament week,” he said.
Aside from playing the pro-am every year, which he will do today, Sakamoto said his company does not have much involvement in the tournament. He said the Sunday finish for the four-day tournament will hopefully increase foot-traffic and audience viewership.
“The last few years have been a Monday finish (due to the weather) and that’s been kind of goofy,” he said. “It’s hard on the volunteers because most of them have to work on Mondays and the local crowd is not there.”
While his company has benefited from the tournament over the years, Sakamoto said the charities on the island are “the real beneficiaries.” The Hyundai sponsored tournament has donated more than $5.3 million to county nonprofit and other groups.
At 73, Sakamoto continues to sell properties and recently made trips to Hong Kong and Singapore with his wife and co-Realtor, Betty, to expand contacts and relationships. He said Sakamoto Properties television ads have helped, too, and brought recognition from the public – even at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
“They go ‘Hey the Sakamotos from Maui,’ and they walk away, and we go ‘who the heck was that?’ ” he said.
Despite the growth and success, the Sakamotos have kept the company small, with 10 or 11 agents concentrating on the Kaanapali and Kapalua areas. He said he does not plan on getting any larger and is looking forward to doing more traveling.
“We get a lot of requests from people who want to join our company, and we find bigger is not better,” he said. “We like keeping it small, and we find we don’t need every sale in the world. We keep it manageable and have fun at it.”
* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.