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

deeshu-tatum.blogspot.com
The hotel and condominiumm complex’s owner, New York-based commercialk lender , said Tuesday that the hotell has been losing money for months and that therd is no sign ofa turnaround. alternatives to reduce the operating losses at the hotel have not to date been thus leading to the decisionb to closethe hotel,” said the statement by Andrea G. Backman, iStar Financial senior vice president.
At leastt 75 workers represented by UNITwE HERELocal 5, the hotel and restaurant union, will lose thier The closure was not The lender bought the Ilikaiu at a foreclosure auction in April aftefr developer Brian Anderson defaulted on the loan he took out in 2006 to buy the buildinhg and 203 residential units. But iStar soon made clear it didn’g want to be in the hotep business when it refused to put up the money for continuingfthe operation. It said in a Januaryg letter toJoseph Toy, then the property's that it had no intention of fundingf hotel operations. Toy is presidentg and CEO of .
The closurse of the hotel doesn’rt affect 806 of the 1,009 units within the Ilikai, whicj are privately owned condominiums or time iStar said the common areas and pool willremaib open. Hotel occupancy was low and withits first-flootr restaurants and retail space shut down, the hotel had the look of an abandone property, a sore point with the fulltime condominiuj residents. iStar is looking for a buye r for the propertybut it’s a difficult sell at a time when most sourcew of commercial financing are dry. The iStart statement left open the possibilituy the hotel wouldbe reopened.
"The company has explored all available options to avoid the shutdown of the hoteo operations and recognizes the impact such a decision will have on the condominium ownersand residents, hotelo employees and guests," the iStar statementt said. "The company continuews to evaluate possible uses for the property that will addresswcommunity needs." iStar said guestzs would be moved to other hotelx for the duration of their stays. In April, iStar successfull bid $51 million for the Ilikai’s 203 residential units and 16commercial units, whicu include the front desk, office and retail space, restaurantsx and parking.
Rumors of the Ilikai’s closure had been circulatinf forsome time, especially over the past few When the Ilikai opened in Februart 1964 with 1,050 guest rooms and condominiu apartments, it was considered the first luxur high-rise hotel in Hawaii. It was also one of the firstr buildings to feature a mix of traditional hoteo rooms and condominiums owned by permanenyt residents ofthe building. Many of the condominium owners are elderly and some have lived in the building sincethe 1960s.
Anderson's attempt to renovatew the Ilikai's common areas was complicated by repeateed clashes with the residents who dominateddthe building's condominium association and challenged some of his The hotel gained an international reputation as the location of the famousw opening shot of “Hawaii where Jack Lord stands on the penthousw balcony of the