Big Island Country Club decelerates timeline for subdivision development, transition to private course

PUUANAHULU — The winds of change have begun to blow at Big Island Country Club, but they aren’t gusting quite as quickly as once assumed.

One difference, coming in May on the back of the mauka breeze so familiar around the course, is a name change to the venue itself — from Big Island Country Club (BICC) to Makani Golf Club. In native Hawaiian, the word makani means wind.

“The name is authentic to the space we’re in, the true nature of the golf course,” said general manager Jason Trim. “Wind might not be the most appreciated aspect of a golf course, but it is indeed where we live.”

Trim himself represents another recent change at BICC, one in leadership moving forward as the new ownership group — OAK Capital, UNIVA Capital Group and UNIVA Resort LLC, which purchased the property in November of 2015 — continues the course’s transition to a fully private club accompanied by the development of a residential subdivision.

Former interim manager at BICC, Terry Clark, last May characterized the pace of the transition as “aggressive.” But another new leadership voice at the soon-to-be Makani Golf Club, managing director Jeff Keeler, scaled back that description.

“It was probably a little premature, getting that message out there,” Keeler said.

He added the process is in “the final stages of the building permit process.”

Clark said last year the ambition was to complete a new clubhouse by the winter of 2018. Keeler said there is not a date for commencing construction on a new clubhouse, but it likely won’t begin for at least a year or two. Construction crews would undertake subdivision development after the new clubhouse is complete.

“The long-term plan will be to be a country club real estate development,” Keeler said. “Step-by-step, we will be at least semi-private — meaning open to the public, embracing the locals, embracing everything the history of this property always has been. We want to be known as the locals’ club.”

In the meantime, Keeler said the course will make itself available to host public tournaments, fundraising events and the like. Memberships are available, as are purchases of individual rounds.

Once the club becomes fully private, memberships won’t be exclusive to those who own or commit to buy property in the surrounding subdivisions. Keeler said membership pricing will probably be phased in, moving on a rising scale as more amenities are added to the course.

Ownership hasn’t finalized membership fee structures, but Keeler said the idea is not to price out everyone except the island’s wealthiest golfers.

While Keeler and Trim amended several details to the vision of BICC’s future laid out by Clark last year, one area they didn’t walk back was an aggressive weed eradication plan to bring the course up to par aesthetically.

Work will soon begin to “beat up” the fairways over the summer with hopes of a more pristine feel across the property come fall following landscaping recovery.

BICC is a nene sanctuary home to roughly 60 of the endangered birds and landscaping initiatives moving forward will be centered around embracing the natural “garden atmosphere” that differentiates the mauka course from more man-made courses in the coastal region, Keeler said.

“I almost see our comfort stations as our little gardens,” he added, saying a preliminary idea is to scatter a variety of fruit trees across the layout. “We are truly Mother Nature’s golf course up here and embrace that we are different.”

Currently, BICC employs 45-50 people full-time. Once development of the course and the subdivision begin, Keeler believes that number may swell to more than 100, depending on the finalized scale of improvements and changes.

Many of the new opportunities would be considered long-term temporary, as development would realistically continue for multiple years.