After last week’s report regarding the future of the Makena Resort, today’s evening news were not completely unexpected. Around 6:00PM all agencies announced that September 16, 2009 will be a date in history for the Maui Prince Hotel in Makena. But opinions and speculations are not completely the same. My guess is that it might just be too early to draw a line today.

The Pacific Business News reports that “Operators plan to close the Maui Prince Hotel“, while The Maui News simple states that “Prince Resorts announces end of management contract for Makena Resort“. In the opinion of the radio and online news station KGMB9.com, there is a good chance that the “Maui Prince may be saved“.

Fact is that the coming two weeks will be incredibly important for the Makena Real Estate market. Stay tuned as I will be posting updates as they become available.

Maui News headline from the next morning, September 1, 2009: Maui Prince Resort’s future uncertain.

Today’s Maui Photo is an aerial featuring Makena’s beauty with the famous Big Beach, the distant Molokini Atoll and the island of Kahoolawe even further out. It also clearly shows the dominant location of the popular Maui Prince Hotel in this area. Just to the left, you can see the construction site of Maluaka At Makena. I think this is a great shot!

Thank you so much for your patience, for your numerous emails, messages and comments. For those who still don’t know, after 15 years, my brother brought our mother back to Maui and you can imagine that this was a comfortable but ‘busy’ visit. I can’t believe that it’s been almost a month, but they finally left to return to Hamburg, Germany. We had a fantastic time together and I am sad to see them gone.

By popular demand, I just now updated the South Maui Real Estate Sales Reports, in the middle of the week. The Sales Reports are usually due between Sunday night and Monday morning every weekend. I am back to this expected schedule and you can email me to request your customized reports. Updated Sales Reports are available on this designated page, but can also be viewed with each individual listing posted in the Makena and Wailea Real Estate market place.

In addition, I also posted the results for July 2009, as usual, in pdf format. And while researching the inventory tonight, I found a few interesting numbers in the Maui MLS, that are worth sharing.

There are 16 new Escrows (accepted offers) that have been opened in the last eight days. All these numbers are the search results for South Maui, from Maalaea to Makena, including Kihei and Wailea. 125 properties are in Escrow of which 102 are below $700,000.00. Wow! Nine are between $700K and $1M. Another 14 properties are listed with over $1,000,000.00.

Maui Rocks! Escrows have virtually increased by 50% since much earlier this year. Between May and July of 2009, 158 Escrows have been opened. During the same period of last year, that number came up to 152. (Hmm, maybe I should take some more time off now and visit the family in Germany.) Calculating last year’s new sales for Hoolei At Wailea and Kai Makani Beach Villas, we are on track with the recorded closings for 2009. Now that is great news!

Today’s Maui Photo is an insight view of the Pipiwai Trail hike at the Oheo Gulch, better known as the Seven Sacred Pools in East Maui. This has been voted my family’s “Best Day on Maui” on their trip. Living all over the world, I have done many hikes, but this trail is an unforgettable experience that one should do at least once in life.

When the Makena Resort sold in Summer of 2007, it was the sized as the island’s largest Real Estate transaction of all times. Today and after all the re-zoning meetings and trouble of 2008, the largest Maui Real Estate Project shows the “Sign of the Time”.

Yesterday, the Maui News reported that the Makena Resort investors defaulted on the loan for this New Development. Today, said paper adds that the Makena Resort story reflects a global struggle and believes that Makena’s irony is easy to see. Well, like CNN, one does not need to believe everything that is shown or printed, but the facts are easy to make out when reading the articles.

Though Maluaka At Makena is part of the Makena Resort and set up to play an integral role in it’s development, it is not affected by the current issues. Maluaka has independent financing in place and will continue to be marketed as Vacant Land sales, certainly a great opportunity in the Makena Real Estate market place. The view on the photo above is over the newly renovated golf course bordering this New Development.