Ronnie Margolis, Kauai Realtor®, CDPE, ABR, RA - On Top of the Aloha Beat

My wife Gwen and I are headed off to lovely Princeville, on Kauai North Shore to OPEN HOUSE at a couple of Princeville Condos. Gwen will be at Cliff 2202, a nice one bedroom condo located on the second floor in a private area of the large complex which is comprised of FEE SIMPLE owners as well as timeshare owners. It's what I cal a blended complex, with two types of owners sharing the same property. Check out the http://webre2.hawaiiinformation.com/REsearch/Base/AspLib/GetKeyLink.asp?S=HIS&R=MLS&T=MLS&K=220368&D=photo&P=72214451&CF=1

Ken Stokes, noted environmentalist and director of the Kauaian Institute, posts about a new group of leaders on Kauai who are focused on moving from the stage of talking about sustainability and are now digging into the DOING phase. As Ken notes, Kauai has a long way to go, but with clear intentions progress can happen rapidly.

Read more on the SUSHI Blog

ELVIS in Blue Hawaii, filmed at the Coco Palms in Wailua, Kauai, Hawaii

Once the darling of vacationers and lovers of paradise, the Coco Palms hotel was devastated by Hurricane Iniki on Sept. 11, 1992. That's right, September 11th. Go figure. The Garden Island reported that the developers have requested extension on their permits.

More than four years have passed since permits were first approved for a major overhaul of the derelict structure that was once the world-famous Coco Palms resort, but a lack of visible progress and frustration with the stewardship of the Wailua property has pushed the project to the verge of extinction.

At the county Planning Commission meeting Tuesday at the Mo‘ikeha Building, Phil Ross, one of three owners of the historic property, argued the development should receive not just the two-year extension to its permits requested in a November letter but a three-year allowance due to current and future economic conditions.

It's sad that Kauai has not been able to do something with this wonderful piece of land. Now, in this difficult economic climate for development, it is even less likely that the county and state may step in and do something.

Read the full report about the current state of Coc Palms in this week's Garden Island

PHOTO BELOW from the Coco Palms brochure in the 80's

As i mentioned in my previous post, January has shown an increase in the number of buyers, offers, and properties that went into escrow in the Kauai Real Estate market. Enclosed is a little chart showing the two properties on the North Shore, that is taxkey 4-5, for those of you familiar with our plat and parcel system of real estate. In Hawaii, the five or six digit number identifies the island, zone, section, plat and parcel of the property. If a property has been conodminiumized ( is that a real word), there will be a sixth digit as well. The properties below are all in escrow and are located in the Hanalei zone, the North Shore, of the Kauai real estate market.

I am having more showings on our listings too, so the buyers are starting to get off the fence. That's a good thing!

The Garden Island, known for it’s ample rainfall and verdant tropical landscape, is home to the wettest spot on earth. Why then, would we possibly ask our community to focus on our water supply when there are so many other critical energy issues to be addressed? Volatile electricity costs, a crippled economy, health care, food security, the list goes on. Simply put; in most Island homes, our water supply is completely oil dependent. Without petroleum to generate electricity, we simply cannot deliver water to a majority of Island residents on Kauai. And although our State leaders have recognized and begun acting on the real potential for oil supply disruptions and continued price volatility, as well as the general economic liability of severe dependence on tourism, few have asked; What about our water?

In response to this, Apollo Kauai, in conjunction with Malama Kauai and several other community organizations, is initiating a campaign to bring focus to the vulnerability of Kauai’s water supply to energy supply problems. What happens to our water supply if there is a sudden and prolonged petroleum shortage on Island? What happens to the cost of our water if oil (and with it, electricity) again shoots to new high prices on the global market? Such events are certainly possible, if not likely, and moreover, are clearly beyond our control. Should we simply do nothing and hope for the best?

There is a meeting on Feb. 19th at the Lihue Neighborhood Center to discuss this and more. For full information Read this article by Ben Sullivan of Apollo Kauai