Wildwood NJ's Tiki motels - General Tiki

JIM John in Montreal Member Joined: Apr 16, 2003 Posts: 212	JIM John in Montreal Posted posted on Sat, May 27, 2006 6:12 AM Yup, the Kona Kai is gone (you can see a photo of the demolition in the archives of my Bamboo Blog at http://www.maitaionline.com)... and a new condo is probably already up in its place. But, as BigBro said, you can't really blame the owners for selling out. They bought the place in 1999... They were long time summer residents and fans of Wildwood. But they were not preservationists. They were simply a nice couple who bought a motel. They turned down several offers at first but when one comes along that represents your entire retirement fund AND college tuition for each of your 4 kids, what are you gonna do? Like I said, sad to see these places go but you really gotta blame the developers and people at city hall for allowing it to happen. On a side note, I did get to rescue a small piece of the Kona Kai... two of the wall-hanging tikis from a room on the motel's third floor.

Yup, the Kona Kai is gone (you can see a photo of the demolition in the archives of my Bamboo Blog at http://www.maitaionline.com)... and a new condo is probably already up in its place.

But, as BigBro said, you can't really blame the owners for selling out. They bought the place in 1999... They were long time summer residents and fans of Wildwood. But they were not preservationists. They were simply a nice couple who bought a motel. They turned down several offers at first but when one comes along that represents your entire retirement fund AND college tuition for each of your 4 kids, what are you gonna do? Like I said, sad to see these places go but you really gotta blame the developers and people at city hall for allowing it to happen.

On a side note, I did get to rescue a small piece of the Kona Kai... two of the wall-hanging tikis from a room on the motel's third floor.

Post #234247 by John in Montreal on Sat, May 27, 2006 6:12 AM