Money-losing Ilikai hotel to close - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

ignatiywulyxura.blogspot.com
The hotel and condominium complex’s New York-based commercial lender , said Tuesday that the hotel has been losing mone y for months and that there is no sign ofa “Unfortunately, alternatives to reduce the operatinb losses at the hotel have not to date been thus leading to the decision to close the hotel,” said the statemen by Andrew G. Backman, iStat Financial senior vice president. At leastr 75 workers represented by UNITE HERELocal 5, the hotekl and restaurant workers’ union, will lose thier jobs. The closures was not unexpected.
The lendert bought the Ilikai at a foreclosure auction in April after developer Brian Anderson defaulteds on the loan he took out in 2006 to buy the buildingg and 203residential units. But iStar soon made clead it didn’t want to be in the hotelk business when it refusecd to put up the moneyh for continuingthe operation. It said in a Januaru letter toJoseph Toy, then the property's that it had no intention of fundinfg hotel operations. Toy is president and CEO of . The closurse of the hotel doesn’t affect 806 of the 1,00o9 units within the Ilikai, which are privately ownedf condominiums ortime shares. iStar said the common areas and pool willremaih open.
Hotel occupancy was low and withits first-floodr restaurants and retail space shut down, the hotel had the look of an abandoneed property, a sore point with the fulltimd condominium residents. iStar is looking for a buyet for the propertybut it’s a difficult sell at a time when most sourcexs of commercial financing are dry. The iStar statemenrt left open the possibility the hotel wouldbe "The company has explored all available optionas to avoid the shutdow n of the hotel operations and recognizes the impact such a decisiohn will have on the condominium owners and residents, hoteol employees and guests," the iStar statement "The company continues to evaluate possiblwe uses for the property that will address community needs.
" iStar said guestz would be moved to other hotels for the duratiom of their stays. In April, iStar successfullh bid $51 million for the Ilikai’ 203 residential units and 16 commercial which include thefrong desk, office and retail space, restaurantws and parking. Rumors of the Ilikai’sd closure had been circulating for some especially over the pastfew weeks. When the Ilikaio opened in February 1964with 1,050 guest rooms and condominium apartments, it was considered the first luxurty high-rise hotel in Hawaii. It was also one of the firsty buildings to feature a mix of traditionao hotel rooms and condominiums ownedf by permanent residents ofthe building.
Many of the condominium owneras are elderly and some have lived in the building since the 1960s. Anderson's attempt to renovatw the Ilikai's common areas was complicated by repeated clasheds with the residents who dominatesthe building's condominium association and challenged some of his The hotel gained an internationao reputation as the location of the famousw opening shot of “Hawaiu Five-O,” where Jack Lord standsz on the penthouse balcony of the