Coco Palms is a legendary resort that, for nearly 40 years, welcomed guests from throughout the islands and around the world, bringing everyone together with great aloha. From this aloha, a unique and wonderful community thrived for many years.
Today it is the last Kaua’i hotel still shuttered by 1992’s Hurricane Iniki. Plans were underway for more than three years to bring Coco Palms back to life, to restore it for all of the past guests who treasure their memories of this Polynesian paradise, and for the people of Kaua’i who could once again make these lands at sacred Wailua a place of aloha, for Kaua’i and for the world.
Coco Palms is the site of the famous wedding scene in Elvis Presley’s film “Blue Hawaii” It was also the home of Queen Debroah Kapule, the last reigning queen of Kaua’i
Larry Rivera's trademark song, “Where Is My Love,” was written while he was an employee of Coco Palms. He was down with the flu and said the hotel manager Grace Guslander called and told him, “don’t stay home with the flu, write a song about a frog,” he recalled.
Grace managed the hotel until 1986 and resided in a nearby Wailua apartment until she died in 2000. She had taken over from her husband Lyle “Gus” Guslander, who died in 1984.
Starting in 1953, Gus expanded a 24-room Coco Palms Lodge into nearly 400 rooms and cottages by the late 1970s. Grace was a manager and the two married.
The hotel became part of the Hawaii tourism company AMFAC with Gus as vice president into the early 1980s. It was purchased by Wailua Associates in 1985 and fell into disrepair after Grace retired, with Hurricane Iniki the final knockout blow in 1992.
After several failed attempts at redeveloping the property, Coco Palms Ventures moved ahead with plans that ended with the economic downturn in 2008. Coco Palms Hui LLC took the lead in 2013 with investors ready to move forward.
The project would include 273 hotel rooms and 77 suites within the hotel’s existing footprint — a slight reduction from the 398 to 403 rooms that existed in the original hotel.
The entire 350-room resort, which will be flagged and operated by Hyatt Hotels Corp. does not have an exact opening date, although the developers have said they’re aiming for sometime in 2017.
The Coco Palms Resort was approved by the Kauai Planning Commission for up to 200 condominiums, 104 hotel units, retail shops and restaurants on the 18.8 acre Resort-zoned parcel. A pedestrian overpass from the Coco Palms Resort to the Seashell Restaurant was also approved.
Coco Palms, with its historical lagoons, magical coconut grove and sacred grounds, provides a wonderful setting for a development commensurate with the lifestyle and beauty of Kauai. It beckons to be brought back to life.
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