Lynda Gill’s Poipu, Kauai, Hawaii Real Estate at Pacific Ocean Properties

Kauai Real Estate Update

1679 Kelaukia Street at the Lanai Villas At Poipu Kai

I just listed a fabulous new home in the Lanai Villas subdivision at the Poipu Kai Resort here in Poipu.  This home has an incredible open, light and functional floor plan consisting of two master suites and a loft area.  The top floor master suite is plantation in style and has a screened in porch area.  This home is over 1,700 square feet on a 6,000 square foot lot in a neighborhood that allows for vacation rentals.  This fee simple home comes partially furnished and the price is $935,000.  For a video tour of this home click on this link www.1679Poipu.com

Last week we saw a continuation of a good number of properties going under contract.  New listings ranged from a $24 Million Dollar estate in Hanalei to a Kauai Beach Resort studio at $45,000.  For a complete list of what sold, what went into escrow and what came on the market Kauai Sales January 30, 2012

Hawaiian Airlines Goes To The Big Apple

On Monday Hawaiian Airliens announced their partnership with JetBlue.  They are sharing Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport with JetBlue and are also codesharing with the airline as well and an agreement is in place for passengers to collect frequent flyer miles on both airlines.  Additionally passengers will now be able to fly both airlines on a single ticket.

Passengers flying between Honolulu and New York can begin connecting through Los Angeles International Airport immediately, and once Hawaiian’s JFK service starts, they can connect to cities up and down the East Coast on JetBlue.

A big celebration was done at JFK International with Hula dancers and an exchange of model plans by JetBlue and Hawaiian Airlines.

Blockbuster In Lihue To Close

Our last video store is closing here on Kauai.  Blockbuster at Kukui Grove Center had hoped to hold on after it closed its Kapaa store, the thought was that they would get the overflow but that did not turn out to be the case, it was too far for people to drive.

Blockbuster, once a leader in the home movie viewing trend, is having to adjust to the competition from Netflix, Red Box Kiosks, Direct TV Movie viewing etc.  They now have a strong online presence and had made the decision earlier this month to cut 900 stores nationwide that were not profitable.  Lihue being one of them.

The liquidation sale will begin sometime after February 1, 2012.

Mokulele Airlines To Start Chicago and London Flights

Honolulu based Mokulele Airlines will begin flying weekly charter flights this April to Chicago and will start flying to London in May.  They just got their approval to do so from the US Department of Transportation.  The flights will be done by Charter World Solutions and will be conducted as Mokulele Airlines.

For these flights Mokulele plans to lease a Boeing 767-200ER.

First Hawaiian Bank Employee Embezzles $2.6 Million

A First Hawaiian Bank branch manager and personal banking officer plead guilty to Federal charges of embezzlement.  The former manager had been an employee for 29 years and during that time had created 56 fictitious accounts where she withdrew money and used proceeds from recently opened accounts to pay balances due on earlier accounts.  Using her position at the bank to cover her actions she kept track of her accounts and paid them before they became delinquent.

The employee repaid the bank more than $2 million our of the $2.68 million, plus fees and interest, before the bank caught on to what was happening.  She repaid an additional $609,450 before the federal authorities began their investigation.  She could face up to 30 years in prison and up to 1 million in fines on June 4th, 2012 when she is sentenced.