Developer plans resort in Princeville

LIHUE – A Hawaii developer plans to build a private resort on Kauai’s north shore that will have its own airport, polo club and nature trails.

The 8,000-acre site in Princeville will have 350 housing units and be managed by the Discovery Land Co., which also manages exclusive properties like Montana’s Yellowstone Club ski resort.

“The idea is to create a private community where the members will agree to pay to be great stewards, to maintain the land,” Jeff Stone, the founder of The Resort Group, told The Garden Island newspaper.

The Resort Group and Reignwood International, an investment firm owned by billionaire Thai-Chinese businessman Chanchai Ruayrungruang, plan to spend at least $500 million on the project, Stone said.

Twenty “equestrian homes,” as Stone called them, will be built on 75 acres surrounding the now-abandoned but soon-to-be-reborn polo fields at Anini. Seventy-five homes, each on a 5-acre lot, will be built along the ridge, and an additional 173 units will make up what will be known as the Lodge Villas, located near the golf course.