The news that $USD 100,000,000 is to be spent on repairing and restoring a resort, particularly one near to destroyed by a hurricane over 20 years ago, is hardly likely to have many people jumping up and down in anticipation.
When you also consider that by the time it re-opens in 2017, and taking into account the hurricane, it has been something like 60 years since the resort opened. You would think the best option would be to simply demolish it and build a brand new, high tech resort, rather than reinstating the old one.
Why expend all this effort and money, well this is not your normal resort. As soon as word got out about this rebuild and refurbishment, tour packagers of weddings, honeymoons and marriage vow renewals were in literal sales frenzy as they flocked to be the first to make contact with the resort's new owners.
The resort that is causing all the excitement is the grand old Coco Palms Resort on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Yes, this is the one made famous when Elvis Presley “married” Joan Blackman there over 50 years ago in one of the most-watched movies ever made, Blue Hawaii.
That 20 minute "wedding" scene had a mighty impact on viewing audiences - the soundtrack from the movie was a chart topper for 20 consecutive weeks. It also had a massive impact of Coco Palms bookings where a flood of weddings were scheduled, multiples almost daily for months on end.
Even 30 years following the destruction wrought by Hurricane Iniki on Coco Palms and a large part of Kauai, look alike Blue Hawaii weddings still remained a large part of its business.
When Coco Palms was originally built in the early 50s it was just 24 rooms on a beachside playground of Kauai's one time royal family. It opened with just two guests you were treated the equal of royalty during their vacation by a GM and four staff.
Over the years and up to 1992 it expanded into a sprawling 400 condominium units and traditional style rooms surrounded by a plantation of around 2,000 palms, originally planted by the Royal family, and hectares of shrubs, ferns and tropical orchids.
In September of that year, and to the despair of all, Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai with winds of 300kmh, hitting with one gust 365kmh. Just about all of Coco Palms' windows and doors were destroyed, rain caused flooding reached into every corner of every room and public space, furnishing were destroyed and the gardens ended up looking like more a mulching depot than a lush tropical showpiece.
Furniture and other items were spread widely across the plantations - some nearly a kilometre away. Following all this destruction the owners decided that the only option available to them was to close the resort and find a developer to purchase and renovate the whole site.
However it took 22 years for a concrete and realistic plan to come forward. A group of Honolulu based investors formed a company this year to commit more than $100 million to renovate the site.
Importantly they were quick to achieve two hard earned goals:
- permission to rebuild the resort under unique Iniki Ordinance. This ordinance allows for the restoration of pre-Hurricane buildings to their original appearance and standard even though those standards might not conform to today's much stricter standards (although safety standards must comply); and,
- renovation of the resort is to be managed by prestigious Hyatt Hotels upon re-opening in 2017.
The new Coco Palms will have 363 rooms, a number of restaurants and the original condominiums once occupied by Elvis Presley, Joan Blackman and major co-star Angela Lansbury in 1961, to be fully-restored. (If you’re already considering booking one in 2017, Elvis shared the 2-bedroom Condominium, No 56, with his body-guard.)
The Blue Hawaii’s Wedding Chapel will also be renovated and returned to use – although interestingly it wasn’t built for the film Blue Hawaii, but for the earlier Miss Sadie Thompson starring Rita Hayworth, that was also partly made there. And, of course, the highlight Blue Hawaii wedding barge will be fully-refurbished and be available for use too.
You'll be pleased to know the chefs engaged to serve the Resort won’t have to contend with Elvis’s unusual dietary requests: every morning he had toasted bacon and egg sandwiches delivered to his bungalow, hamburgers and fries for both lunch and dinner and for snacks between film shoots, deep fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
Now let's wait and see if indeed in 2017, dreams do come true in Blue Hawaii.
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