Sept. 23–A new Hawaii vacation experience with striking marine exhibits, "awe-inspiring discovery" and "revolutionary water play" could be in store for Ko Olina Resort &Marina.
A Chinese company has completed its $280 million purchase of beachfront land at the West Oahu resort, where it intends to develop a hotel under the Atlantis Resorts brand.
China Oceanwide Holdings Ltd. said Monday that its purchase, announced last month, closed on Sept. 15.
The company provided no new details about its plans for the property but indicated that it exercised an option to develop the 26-acre site under the Atlantis brand operated by Kerzner International. Had China Oceanwide declined to use Atlantis, it would have paid $12 million more for the real estate.
Kerzner has not responded to requests for more information, including what a Hawaii Atlantis resort might involve.
Jeff Stone, Ko Olina's master developer, who orchestrated the land purchase from himself and his investment partners, previously said China Oceanwide could start construction on a roughly $1.5 billion resort in mid-2017 and be finished two years later with a property employing 1,800 people.
In recent years, Kerzner has partnered with property owners to expand the Atlantis brand, including a $1.4 billion project called the Royal Atlantis Resort in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with about 800 hotel rooms, 250 luxury residences and "never before-seen marine experiences" announced in 2014 with the Investment Corp. of Dubai.
In 2013, Kerzner announced a project on the island of Hainan in China promising "awe-inspiring discovery … unparalleled excitement, larger than life experiences, revolutionary water play in Aquaventure Waterpark (and) exotic marine exhibits" as part of a project with Chinese company Fosun International Ltd.
Kerzner also was previously affiliated with Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
China Oceanwide is an affiliate of Oceanwide Holdings Co., a Chinese conglomerate engaged in real estate, finance and investing primarily in China. Last year, the company adopted an overseas real estate development strategy.
Hawaii has been a focus of this overseas expansion, as China Oceanwide paid $200 million for about 17 acres at Ko Olina between a Marriott time-share property and a luxury condominium complex named Beach Villas for development of up to two luxury hotels and one luxury condo. The company also signed a $98 million deal earlier this year to buy about 500 acres between Ko Olina and Kapolei long envisioned for residential development.
The land slated for the Atlantis resort, which fronts portions of two lagoons between Disney's Aulani Resort and the Beach Villas condo complex, gives China Oceanwide control over the four remaining undeveloped hotel sites fronting the master-planned resort's four oceanfront lagoons, and could possibly make the company the biggest hotel operator at Ko Olina.
