KAILUA-KONA — Hotel Concepts, a Seattle-based hospitality company whose properties include the Holiday Inn Express &Suites on Sarona Road in Kailua-Kona, is connected to a proposal to build a new four-story hotel in town.
The Kona Village Design Commission will consider the proposal at a meeting Tuesday at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
The hotel is proposed to have 141 units and would be built near the south-makai corner of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Henry Street intersection.
The property, more than 4 acres, according to the county’s real property tax office, is owned by Circadia Management LLC, based in Seattle. A call to the number listed for that company was answered by a recorded greeting for Hotel Concepts, a hospitality company focused on aspects including land acquisition, construction and hotel management.
Hotel Concepts properties span several brands including Hampton Inn &Suites, Holiday Inn and Fairfield Inn.
Aside from the Kona Holiday Inn Express &Suites, which opened in 2014, the company’s properties include more than a dozen hotels in Washington state.
A representative for the company could not be reached Thursday.
The architect named on the application, Fritz Harris-Glade, said talks about what brand the new hotel being proposed for Kona will open under are still ongoing.
The property sits off Queen Kaahumanu Highway between Henry Street and Ala Onaona Street. Access to the hotel would be from Henry Street.
A couple residents who live on Ala Onaona Street said Wednesday that they weren’t too sure about the proposal moving into their neighborhood.
“I don’t think we need one,” said resident Lisa Hoffman. “I just think we have enough lodging for tourists.”
Everett Hollister, who has lived on Ala Onaona Street for a year now, said that the issue isn’t so much of where the hotel is being built but rather the influx of more tourists and the effect it has on residents’ ability to afford to live in Kona.
Hollister said he’s concerned that the more prices in the community are inflated for tourists with disposable income, the more difficult it is for those who live here and might be living paycheck to paycheck.
“For everyone that doesn’t have that disposable income, it’s more and more difficult to live here,” he said.