Hawaii's Ilikai to Close; Will It Still Become an Edition Later?
The gigantic Ilikai Hotel, which "Hawaii Five-0" fans will recognize as the building Steve McGarrett stood on as the helicopter zoomed in on him during the show's intro, plans to cease operations in two days due to serious operating losses. According to the AP, iStar Financial said "203 hotel rooms in the nearly 1,000-unit property" will shut down on Thursday and guests with reservations will be accommodated elsewhere.
Per the AP article:
The company bought the hotel for $51 million at a foreclosure auction in May. In a statement, iStar said it hoped its subsidiary would be able to cut costs enough to allow the hotel operations to continue after it takes possession of the property Friday.
"Unfortunately, alternatives to reduce the operating losses at the hotel have not to date been achieved, thus leading to the decision to close the hotel," the company said.
Now: back in February, we'd heard that this was going to be the site of the first Edition — Hotel Business Magazine had reported that the first Edition Hotel would open in Honolulu in 2010 as a conversion of The Ilikai hotel. And, in a June interview with Hotels Magazine, Marriott President and COO Arne Sorenson said Edition had "definitive signed management contracts...in Istanbul, Barcelona, Mexico City, Bangkok and Waikiki." So we assume this means Edition Honolulu is still on — but how does the Ilikai's closure affect this?
Interestingly, the AP article about the Ilikali noted that the closure of the hotel units will "not directly affect operations at the 806 other condominium and timeshare units" — so it's not like this place is going to be a big, empty building free to be taken over completely by Edition.
Hmmm, interesting. Discuss.
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