The iconic Kona Inn Shopping Village and Kona Bay Hotel in Historic Kailua Village are up for sale.
The 139-room budget hotel and 86,000-square-foot oceanfront shopping village in Kailua-Kona is listed with Eric Kathrein and Geoff Tranchina of JLL, Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc, which is a commercial real estate services company with offices in Honolulu.
There is no asking price for the 8.08 acres of fee-simple, hotel-resort zoned property that also includes parking lots and the area of the Kona Farmers Market at the intersection of Hualalai Road and Alii Drive.
“Available for the first time, Kona Inn Shopping Village and Kona Bay Hotel is a once in a generation opportunity,” the listing reads. “The Property is a trophy asset which offers a new owner the opportunity to shape the identity and future of Kailua-Kona.”
Attempts to reach the agents, as well as Wendell Brooks III, JLL’s executive vice president and Hawaii broker lead, were unsuccessful as of press-time Thursday.
William “Uncle Billy” Kimi Jr., who constructed the Hilo Bay Hotel in 1963, purchased the hotel in Kona in 1978, adding two buildings in 1979. Kimi also purchased the Kona Inn Shopping Village.
Kimi died in 2016 at the age of 93 and the family, which is the seller, operated it until its closure on March 5.
The Kona Bay Hotel is situated on about 2.06 acres on the mauka side of Alii Drive. Its four buildings, two of which reach four stories, cover 89,588 square feet. The hotel also features an 800-square-foot reinforced concrete pool built in 1965. The county lists the total market value of the property at $4.42 million.
The Kona Inn Shopping Village, built on the site of the Kona Inn, which opened in 1928, is located on about 4.07 acres of oceanfront property on the makai side of Alii Drive valued by the county at $8.06 million. It boasts numerous store fronts, including Hilo Hattie, World Core Surf Shop and the Treasury, among others; the Kona Inn restaurant; and 750 feet of “unobstructed” frontage on Kailua Bay.
The offering also includes a 0.74 fee-simple parking lot behind the hotel, and another 0.28-acre parking lot that’s leased from the state. It also includes the parking lot on the south side of Hualalai Road and the area where the Kona Farmers Market sets up, which encompasses just over 1.1 acres.
