Wailea hotel project advances
Hotel Ike, with four stories and 110 rooms, would be on 3-acre lot
The Maui Planning Commission granted multiple approvals on Monday to a proposed 110-unit hotel in Wailea.
The commission approved a special management area use permit and planned development steps I and II to Hotel Ike, which would be located on a 3-acre lot at the corner of Wailea Ike Place and Wailea Ike Drive.
The new hotel would include 110 units in a single, four-story building with onsite amenities, including a swimming pool, spa, fitness center, lounge, open space and walking paths. The hotel also would have 78 on-site parking stalls, including five handicap parking stalls.
Project developer R.D. Olson is the same firm behind the neighboring Residence Inn and the Courtyard by Marriott in Kahului. Tony Wrzosek, vice president of planning and development for R.D. Olson, said Monday that Hotel Ike would be more oriented toward adults and aims to complement the services at the family-oriented Residence Inn.
The hotel is estimated to cost about $17.8 million. Construction is expected to take less than three years. Wrzosek said the plan is to start grading in mid-January and get building permits by May.
Tyler Fujiwara, traffic engineer with Austin, Tsutsumi and Associates, said the new hotel is expected to add five to 15 vehicles per direction along Wailea Ike Drive during both the morning and afternoon peak hours.
The hotel is also expected to use 51,680 gallons of water per day and 8,000 gallons per day for irrigation, said Manny Nuno, civil engineer with DCI Engineers. The county has existing water and sewer systems on Wailea Ike Drive. The 16,500 gallons per day of wastewater from Hotel Ike would be routed to the Kihei Wastewater Reclamation Facility.
Jordan Hart, president of Chris Hart & Partners, said that developers also reached an agreement with Wailea Golf to move a well on the property that irrigates the nearby golf courses.
“The well has been moved already under a separate permit, and the parcel is going to be added on to Wailea Golf’s existing parking lot that serves their tennis center,” Hart said.
He added that the developers realigned the boundary between the proposed Hotel Ike and the Residence Inn to allow Hotel Ike to tuck further into the slope and minimize view impacts. The total acreage, however, does not change.
The project drew no testifiers Monday, but commissioners expressed concerns about preserving views, water availability, parking and incorporating solar power.
Hart and Wrzosek said they could consider scaling back landscaping to provide better views and were open to adding solar panels and including more handicap parking stalls. However, when asked how much water would be available to Wailea after Hotel Ike was built, Hart wasn’t sure and said the answer would have to come from the Department of Water Supply.
Commission Chairman Keaka Robinson said that he was “not against this project or this developer or that this hotel would be very successful . . . but without knowing what the water balance is that’s going to be used there, that is something” that he was concerned about.
The commission (not including Robinson, who only votes when there is a tie) eventually voted to grant the approvals to the project, which must now complete building permit plans and seek planned development step III approval, which ensures the building plans match the original proposal.
Planned development step I approval is required by landowners who want to develop parcels of 3 acres or more. The developer must submit the location, size and brief description of the project to the commission. Step II approval requires the developer to outline the project’s drainage, streets, utilities, grading, landscaping, facilities and other details.
A special management area major permit is required for any development of $500,000 or more located within an area near the shoreline.
On Monday, the commission also recommended approval of a pair of bills that would reclassify two parcels on which St. Anthony Church and Schools sit. The property includes two residential-zoned parcels of 14.3 acres and 0.3 acres. One bill would change the zoning on both parcels to public/quasi-public, which allows for churches and schools. The other bill would amend the Wailuku-Kahului Community Plan and land use map to change the 0.3-acre parcel from single-family to public/quasi-public.
St. Anthony alum and board member Rory Frampton said that Maui did not have zoning designations when the school and church were first established. Zoning came along in the 1950s, and public-quasi public districts were added in the 1980s. The bills would not only bring the zoning up to date but also allow the school to do renovations or expand.
Head of School Tim Cullen said that the school is in its second year as a kindergarten-through-12th-grade system, and that a gym is much needed for the students.
* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.