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

Kauai Real Estate News

Before we get to Kauai Real Estate we’ll cover the most important piece of business, the glorious weather here on Kauai!!!!  I took a power walk with a girlfriend on Sunday morning and we ended it at Poipu Beach at 10:15 a.m. where I took this photo.  There were lots of people at the beach and it was so fantastic I ran home and grabbed my suit and hit the beach myself!  The water was glorious and I got too much sun, but I loved every minute of it.

I had a very, very busy week with two of my listings at Kiahuna Plantation going under contract.  I brought in the Buyers for Kiahuna #321 which is listed at $150,000, another agent in

Kiahuna Plantation (LH) #321 List Price $150,000 IN ESCROW

Kiahuna Plantation )LH) #57 List Price $249,000 IN ESCROW

our office brought in the Buyers for my other listing #57 listed at $249,000.  I had written about #57 in my last blog (in case you missed my “Kiahuna Trifecta” blog CLICK HERE  )  Last week we did not have a lot of properties that came on the market (this is good!) but we did have a fair amount go into escrow and a fair amount of closings (again, this is good!).  For a complete list of what sold, went into escrow and came on the market CLICK HERE FOR SPREADSHEET

Entire Island Of Kauai Loses Power

On Wednesday my husband and I had just gotten home and were catching up on the news when we lost all power as did the entire island.  Kauai Island Utility Cooperative stated a large fault in one of its generators cut power to the entire island.

You can imagine the impact of traffic lights and stores going dark at 5:15 pm.  By 6:30 pm only 15% of the island had power restored and by 8:00 pm 66% were back online. It was around 8:30 when the power came on in Poipu.  The island in its entirety had their electricity up by 10:32 pm.

5 Arrested In TSA California/Honolulu Drug Ring

A meth amphetamine drug ring that connected Southern California and Honolulu via employees at Delta Airlines and Honolulu TSA workers was broken up on last Tuesday.  The ring had been in existence since January 2011.  Hundreds of thousands pounds of meth were transported here and hundreds of thousands of dollars were transported back to California.

5 people have been arrested here in Hawaii and 8 have been arrested in California.  The allegations are a Delta Employee in Honolulu used her security credentials to bypass airport checkpoints to transport money to California.  In California another Delta employee or a TSA employee would use their security credentials to place 30 to 40 pounds of meth in luggage that had already gone through screening.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been recording cell phone conversations and intercepting text messages.

Mega 9 Plex Movie Theatre Coming To Kauai

Last Tuesday the Planning Commission approved a $10 million multiplex cinema that will have 9 screens and will seat 1,274 people.  It will be built in the back parking lot of Kmart.

The “Kukui Marketplace Stadium 9” will offer 3D movies, luxury seats, digital projection capabilities and a 67 foot wide screen which will be the largest in the state!

This theatre will be ready by the summer of 2013.

Molokai Couple Sues Condominium Board And Wins $3.9 Million

A Molokai couple was awarded nearly $3.9 million in damages last week after a Maui jury found they had been subjected to threats, harassment and intimidation in a dispute with their condo association.

The story spans out over 6 years and is a tale of death threats, car vandalism, marginalization etc.  A couple moved into their Molokai condo 6 years ago and their trouble started when they used an outside contractor instead of the condominiums handyman to do renovations.  According to the homeowners, and others of the condo complex, the condo was being run by a board of directors who treated the condo complex as their own “personal fiefdom.” They worked in concert with two “thugs” being the resident manager and an unlicensed handyman who had a criminal record and boasted of having ties with the mob.  This couple became a target by not using the condo complexes unlicensed handyman to do the work in their condo.  Over a 6 year period the situation got completely out of hand on every level.

The Jury hearing the case was “completely ticked off” and their verdict included $500,000 in general damages and more than $3 million in punitive damages to be paid by the board of directors and condo association, as well as by three members of the board individually, the former resident manager and the handyman.

Here’s the kicker; punitive damages are not likely to be covered under the condominiums insurance so the $1.3 million levied against the Board of Directors very well could come out of their pockets.