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Kohanaiki
Hawaii’s stunning natural beauty, exciting culture, and penchant for luxury are altogether enhanced for members and guests among the developments and resorts that offer a one-of-a-kind island lifestyle.
Hawaii received over 9.9 million visitors in 2018, according to the state governor’s office. There is no shortage of foot traffic on the islands and more and more families are falling in love with the lifestyle and searching for a second home amongst the Aloha Spirit. A variety of developments and resorts to choose from makes the transition from vacation place to home seamless.
“There is a genuine sense of community among the members, who also love Hawaii and the island experience,” notes Chuck Cary, vice president of sales and marketing at Kohanaiki. The development on the Big Island of Hawai`i is an exclusive, high-end, invitation-only private club community. It appeals to those looking for an escape, which is easy to find on the 450 oceanfront acres. The idea of a luxurious, hassle-free experience is one that rings true for most developments and resorts in Hawaii.
“Luxury buyers are seeking opportunities to establish second home ownership that can deliver unique family experiences and ultimate gathering places – authentic communities that embrace local culture and a true turnkey lifestyle experience,” says Tina Necrason, senior vice president of Residential at Montage International. Montage Kapalua Bay, located on Maui along the waters of Namalu Bay, is an intimate 24-acre resort overlooking the bay.
Nicole Vincent, Realtor/Broker on the Kohala Coast for Coldwell Banker Island Properties, is well versed in the realm of luxury real estate, especially in developments and resorts. She notes that buyers, especially those with families, are drawn to the amenities that are offered in developments because the concierge, planned activities, fitness, golf, fine dining restaurants, and other amenities facilitate ease and convenience all within a community.
PHOTO COURTESY MONTAGE KAPALUA RESIDENCES
Montage Residences Kapalua Bay
“The happiest clients are able to visit their homes and relax while visiting and really enjoy all the Big Island has to offer,” notes Vincent. The especially enticing elements that developments offer are the family-friendly and community-oriented aspects. “The memberships are structured for families with what is called a vertical membership, meaning the grandparents, children, and grandchildren can all be considered as members. This becomes attractive for families and extended families who vacation together,” according to Vincent. The sense of community is a crucial element that buyers and visitors expect, and it becomes obvious even after a short stay.
“The staff knows you, your likes and dislikes, the same way your family does. That personalized, high-end consistent service is a big part of why buyers know they want to be a part of a private club versus general luxury real estate,” urges Cary on Kohanaiki’s dedication to community. Similarly, Necrason, says, “there is a strong sense of camaraderie in the community through the relationships that are built as families get to know one another, whether through an owner event or shared excursion throughout the year or getting to know the resort staff.”
The luxurious amenities can certainly be a deciding factor for buyers, yet the decision can go further, beyond beach and spa access. “Ultimately, buyers seem to gel with a particular location based on the total package, despite all resorts essentially being able to claim most of the same amenity options,” says Vincent.
Kohanaiki, for example, is committed to sustainability and the conservation/preservation of the environment. “Kohanaiki is recognized as a leader in the evolution of the private club experience,” Cary says. “The planning and development of the community are centered on an environmentally sustainable infrastructure.” While amenities can capture attention, fundamentals such as this also play an important role in attracting guests and buyers.
This editorial originally appeared in Unique Homes Winter 2020.
Along the shores of Big Island’s Kohala Coast, it’s no secret that private club community Kohanaiki is changing the face of luxury of the Hawaiian Islands and beyond — and they’ve got the sales to prove it.
By Samantha Myers
“I guess you can say we’ve had a great first half of the year. We surpassed $100 million in sales since January,” says Nicole L. K. Vincent, principal broker for Kohanaiki. “We have more than tripled the sales from the first half of last year.” Attributed to the surge in demand for the 450-acre residential development was the debut of its 67,000-square-foot clubhouse at the beginning of the year, which has quickly become a lifestyle meeting place for its residents.
“I think it’s important to recognize that our members are a unique set of individuals,” says George Punoose, general manager. “They are well-traveled, sophisticated and they’ve seen a lot of special places over the world.” Kohanaiki offers members two home options: buildable home sites and turnkey properties, from $1 million for custom home sites to over $16 million for turnkey properties. But with property, also comes private club membership — with a $150,000 entrance fee and a $25,000 annual fee, Kohanaiki is at the forefront of full-service luxurious living.
“What I find really special is the vertical membership,” says Vincent of the program that enables siblings, children and grandparents to be members. “You get families and generations coming together for holidays. Everyone’s so happy to spend time together, golfing, going out on the ocean on the boat… creating these magical memories in Hawaii.”
Recent to the luxury development is a new director of its world-class spa offering an extensive menu of wellness and relaxation treatments. “Our focus on the spa has always been to use ingredients that are local, whether that’s the coffee, the sand, mud or lava soil,” says Punoose. Other additions include the opening of an on-site brewery, providing residents a choice alternative to the otherwise wine-centric property.
Despite the abundance of amenities, a Rees Jones golf course, and ideal coastal surfing and snorkeling spots, when it comes down to it, the essence of Kohanaiki is actually in the intangible. “Time and time again, we constantly hear that what is special at Kohanaiki is not only the product and the service,” says Punoose. “But our biggest factor is the quality of people we hire — their attitude and friendliness.”
BIG ISLAND’S LATEST PRIVATE LUXURY DEVELOPMENT IN NEARLY A DECADE IS MAKING ITS MARK ON THE HAWAIIAN LANDSCAPE AND THE RESIDENTIAL MARKET.
By Samantha Myers
This is an extended version of an article originally in Unique Homes Ultimate 2017. Click here to view the print version. Also check out our breaking story on Kohanaiki’s clubhouse from February 2017.
There’s nothing like stepping out of a pressurized plane cabin into Big Island’s pacific breeze. But Kohanaiki — a private club community only two miles from Kona International Airport — takes that refreshment a step further. Handed lava rock-filtered water and a chilled towelette in a private shuttle, we headed to the source of this impeccable service — a place both breathtaking, and where you can catch your breath.
Like most homesites on Kohanaiki, our 3-bedroom hale offered an inland backdrop of Hualālai’s mountains and views extending to the pristine coastline. A tour of the 450-acre property via electric golf carts, the main form of transportation on property, and a walk-through of the brand-new, 67,000-square-foot clubhouse provided a true understanding of life here.
“The Kohala Coast of Big Island is famous for its year-round sunny, tropical vacation weather,” says James Lynch, sales executive for Kohanaiki Realty, LLC. “It’s a perfect environment for indoor-outdoor living.” Kohanaiki’s distinct architectural style, a contemporary interpretation of traditional Hawaiian design, was developed by a handful of esteemed architects. The sleek, atmospheric outdoor-orientated architecture is not only a selling point for its available homesites, but is also a paradise-like setting for its amenities.
With our freshly caught cuisine enjoyed at the signature open-wall sushi bar and chophouse Kōnane, and beach dining with seating that spills onto the white-sand beach, the open-air became our dining room.”This is a setting where shoes are optional, as life can be lived here pure and natural,” Lynch adds.
A tour around the Rees Jones-designed golf course offers ideal vantage points of the carefully planned and preserved landscape — where smooth greens interlace with black volcanic rock, environmentally protected anchialine ponds, ancient sites and six masterful oceanfront holes for golfers. You gain an appreciation of the land and what Kohanaiki has done to both preserve and accentuate its features while at the same time providing a comfortable lifestyle for its members.
“Kohanaiki appeals to people with a taste for adventure, an appreciation for the finer things in life, and a desire for a laid-back environment,” says President and CEO Joe Root. If you’re craving indoor activity on a rainy day, you’ll have to imagine the rain. But the clubhouse offers a fitness center, movie theater, bowling alley, bar and secret cigar lounge among other hidden treasures.
The shores are some of the best snorkeling and surfing spots on the island, and our time with the “A-Team” — expert ocean sport guides — set us up with snorkels and paddleboards instructing us to the best spots to see marine life. We didn’t have to stray far before we were swimming alongside schools of bright fish and watching a sea turtle dance around the reef. The next day, our charter on Kohanaiki’s yacht, the Kaikea, let us swim alongside thirty-plus dolphins and gave us front-row seats to a humpback whale show while enjoying breakfast on the boat.
In between water sports, we were able to visit the spa, which offers an extensive menu of treatments. We opted for a couple’s spa treatment in a heavenly private courtyard — the “Botany of Bliss” — which included a soak in a custom-blended herbal outdoor bath for two, followed by individual La’i massages.
The comfort provided by the spa and locker rooms was even unexpectedly rivaled by the golf “comfort stations” located throughout the property. These stations provide an air-conditioned retreat during a round of golf or a tennis match, and are fully stocked with any type of snack or treat imaginable, as well as frozen mai tai machines and cold wine and beer. One may find themselves spending more time here than out on the course.
While luxurious relaxation prevails in any corner of the property, our tour with Joe around Kohanaiki showed us details that one may not notice upon first glance, or on their own explorations. This included the wide-range of art celebrating the Hawaiian heritage and the history of Kohanaiki’s property. The collection includes over 200 art pieces, including prints, paintings and artifacts. “The clubhouse features one of the most robust and extensive collections of authentic, museum-quality art pieces on the island,” says Root. “It was important to give the clubhouse a sense of place through this robust collection of artwork. We have been collecting any of these pieces over the past decade, and are pleased with how they seem to weave in seamlessly with the design of the clubhouse and help to give it the character and historical context that make it so much more than just a building.”
A visit to the wine tasting room revealed a collection of rare vintage wines — 50 years worth of Château Mouton Rothschild — among some of the resident’s wine lockers, which are located throughout the property, especially around the eating spots. Residents can have a bottle of wine handy at any given moment. Kohanaiki has made it a priority to bring wine to their residents, a drink not as common on an island location due to costs of importation. While we were visiting, we attended a beachside wine dinner collaboration between Kohanaiki and Kosta Browne Winery, from California. Enjoyed with other members, the four-course meal featured pairings with 2013 and 2014 Russian River Valley Pinor Noirs (and others) alongside a delicious, delicate menu including crispy seared snapper and a dish of duck breast, confit and Colorado lamb. For dessert, it was a Tahitian vanilla bean crème brûlée enjoyed with a remarkable 40-year-old Tawny Port.
“Our membership is the best part of Kohanaiki,” says Root. “We have attracted an incredible group of well-traveled, sophisticated and successful people who have chosen Kohanaiki as their place to disconnect and just have fun with their friends and family.” With a $150,000 entrance fee and $25,000 annual membership fee, Kohanaiki is at the forefront of full-service luxurious living.
“In most cases these homes are our members second or even third homes. We try and make multiple home-ownership as easy as possible with our residential services program,” says General Manager George Punoose. “We take care of your entire pre-arrival, stay and post-departure experience by attending to all aspects of your home — housekeeping, landscaping, pool care and even grocery shopping.” Our visit to Kohanaiki was a testament to this service — upon our arrival, the fridge and pantry were fully stocked with over a week’s worth of groceries, the home was lit up and an iPad was connected to a sound system playing the ideal relaxing vacation music you’d want to hear upon arriving in paradise.
Just some of the many residential options at Kohanaiki.
The property puts being social and incorporating family as primary ideals for their membership. “We are a family friendly resort and we’ve attracted families small and large, with parents and grandparents seeing this place as something their family will enjoy for generations,” says Root. “Kohanaiki uses vertical memberships that enable siblings, children and grandparents to be full members of the club. Whatever we can do to make it easier for families to come together is a good thing.”
The philosophies of Kohanaiki, instituted by a stellar team, have been reciprocated by the public. Kohanaiki is one of the hottest new luxury residential spots to own property on, not only on Hawaii, but anywhere — and they have the celebrity clientele and sales to prove it. “The recent grand opening of the new clubhouse was a key milestone validating Kohanaiki as the premier private, gated community in the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in record-breaking sales of over $60 million over the past 60 days,” says Lynch.
“Our members are a sophisticated set that have traveled and experienced the finest things in life,” says Punoose. “Our goal here is to still exceed their high expectations.” Here, at Kohanaiki, attention to detail is not sufficient. Instead, a staff that masters the details awaits Kohanaiki’s fortunate members who retreat in this otherworldly community.
Kohanaiki offers two ownership options: custom homesites where you can purchase a plot of land and build your own home, or choose a home from a full-range of turnkey and fully furnished developer-built homes in various sizes, styles and configurations. Kohanaiki also offers fee-simple real estate ownership. Fee-simple means that the real estate is owned forever in perpetuity and can be passed down from generation to generation. Less than 5% of all the land in the Hawaiian Islands is available for fee simple ownership, therefore, Kohanaiki represents a rare opportunity for families to own in a world-class oceanfront community here in the islands and build long-term legacy wealth.
At 67,000 square feet, the clubhouse is one of the largest in the world
Kohanaiki, the first luxury development on the Kona Coast in nearly a decade, has finished construction on its exquisite new clubhouse and spa, raising the bar for private residential communities across the globe. Incorporating the finest features and finishes, including more than eleven miles of cedar decking throughout, the clubhouse boasts world-class amenities and unexpected extras including a James Bond-style cigar lounge with a poker table and scotch bar hidden behind a secret door, a museum-worthy collection of more than 200 artworks and artifacts, a private brewery, a four-lane bowling alley, as well as a holistic spa designed by the leader in modern spa design, Tracy Lee.
“Our members are a well-traveled and sophisticated set with the world at their fingertips, so we were challenged to create a clubhouse that was larger-than-life and incorporates clever details to surpass anything done before at a private residential community,” said General Manager of Kohanaiki, George Punoose. “We designed the clubhouse to be the heartbeat of the community. I’ve always said that the best part of Kohanaiki is the people, and this clubhouse will play a big role in bringing all of our members together under one roof to enjoy each other and our incredible location.”
Kohanaiki’s young, family-oriented membership drove the development team to create a fun, relaxed environment for all ages to enjoy. The 21-seat movie theater and four-lane bowling alley were crafted with the latest technology and design in mind, and are complemented by an assortment of snacks, candies and drinks. Kids will find endless entertainment options with video game rooms, shuffleboard, pool tables and the K-Kids Children’s Center, while their parents can host events in one of two private dining rooms, sip from the rare wine collection in the tasting room, or enjoy a game of poker in the cigar lounge behind a secret door with a modern speakeasy feel.
Tracy Lee—owner of TLee Spas and designer of many of Auberge Resorts’ signature spas—created treatments inspired by two words: “Aloha Aina,” or “the love of the land.” Reflecting the unique philosophy and teachings of native Hawaiian healers, the menu features locally sourced botanical ingredients and reflects ancient healing traditions of the island. The Spa features four freestanding treatment rooms, including one for couples and one specifically for skincare, all of which will boast outdoor showers and soak tubs. A salon for nails, makeup and hair pampers members, while the 25-meter pool, yoga lawn and advanced training equipment and studios keep them active. Kohanaiki aims to maintain harmony of the mental, emotional and spiritual self, focusing on the preventative health of members so they may live a fully engaged, vibrant life.
Known for its focus on sourcing the finest ingredients from across the world, and oftentimes from its own organic community farm, Kohanaiki is expanding its food and beverage offerings with the debut of Kōnane, a sophisticated 2,261 square-foot, 120-seat Chop House and Sushi Bar by Executive Chef Patrick Heymann. Located on the top floor of the clubhouse, each table overlooks the event lawn and offers the best ocean and sunset views on the island.
Downstairs, brewmaster Garratt Fitts has worked with Kohanaiki to create signature beers in the 300-square-foot brewery, where new concoctions are made daily and members can taste seasonal flavors. For members who prefer wine, the clubhouse has reserved space for prized bottles, with wine storage lockers lining the hallways of the lower level. There is also 50 years of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in the clubhouse wine room, where members can host private tastings among some of the most coveted wines in the world.
The clubhouse was designed by renowned architect Shay Zak of Zak Architecture, who is known for his ability to capture the spirit of the sites where he works while honoring the principles that make good design. The clubhouse design represents a modern Hawaiian aesthetic. Combined with the rare collection of Hawaiian literature found in the clubhouse, ancient remedies in the spa and an impressive gallery of historic art pieces and artifacts, members will be consistently reminded of the land’s rich history and culture dating back hundreds of years.
Kohanaiki’s clubhouse is now open to members and their guests. Membership is associated with purchasing real estate at Kohanaiki, with homes ranging from $3 million to over $22 million. To find out more, click here.