Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth and Bing Crosby were frequent guests. And its grounds were once home to Kauai’s last queen, Deborah Kapule. Now The Coco Palms Resort is being rebuilt. But it’s set to be more than just a hotel.
It was once the resort favoured by Elvis and other Hollywood royalty. But The Coco Palms Resort on the island of Kauai was heavily damaged by a hurricane in 1992.
Now demolition will begin to make room for a new 350-room hotel and cultural centre, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Where you’ll know the resort from
Elvis aficionados will recognise the resort from the Elvis film Blue Hawaii. It was here that Elvis’ and Joan Blackman’s characters married and where he sings the “Hawaiian Wedding Song”.
The resort opened in 1953 and was soon a hit with the Hollywood big guns.
However, The Coco Palms Resort was severely damaged when the devastating Hurricane Iniki struck Kauai on 11 September, 1992. The hotel was forced to close due to the damage, and it has since fallen into disrepair.
Over the years, attempts to restore the hotel failed.
According to Mel Rapozo, the Chairman of the Kauai Council, the locals are against the construction of a resort. During a recent meeting of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, several individuals voiced their objections to the development, citing the presence of ancestral bones on the site. Joseph Kekaulike Kamai, a cultural practitioner, stated that his great-grandmother was buried there, and many others were buried underneath the hotel, driveway, and tennis courts.
The restoration
The $250 million project will take three years to complete, said Patrick Manning, a managing partner of Reef Capital Partners.
Reef Capital became the default owner of the property. But Manning said that while the plan was to sell the property after he investigated its history, he changed his mind.
“I called my partners, and I said, ‘This property is too important to sell,’” Manning said.
The new hotel and a cultural centre to honour the property’s history will be built on about 10 acres of the property.
