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Tiki Central / General Tiki / NEWS: The COCO Palms to re-open in 2008

Post #703951 by TikiSpeer on Mon, Jan 6, 2014 8:17 PM

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My Future Hawaii holiday - after this years Hawaii holiday and after So-Cal next year.

"Kauai’s Coco Palms – the once world-famous resort has been in disarray since it was shut down abruptly by Hurricane Iniki 21 years ago. An approval by Kauai County Council has given the establishment a chance under a county ordinance that allows developers to restore hurricane-damaged structures to their pre-Iniki condition without the requirements of adhering to current stricter health and safety standards. Coco Palms Hui LLC has been given a 24-month window by the county to refurbish the resort to its former glory, and to transform it into a premier destination and cultural icon. Tentative plans are to renovate three guest-room buildings along Kuhio Highway and repair five hotel structures, including Seashell Restaurant, Queen’s Audience Hall and Chapel Palms.

According to The Garden Island newspaper, Coco Palms Hui developers are working with Hawaiian Land Trust and state Department of Land and Natural Resources to determine whether four acres of an adjacent 20-acre site can be set aside for a cultural center or pavilion per the hui’s tentative plans. The remaining 16 acres will be designated preservation and conservation.

Coco Palms made its mark in the film industry during the final scenes of Blue Hawaii. My sisters and their friends drooled over Elvis Presley when they saw him crooning The Hawaiian Wedding Song to actress Joan Blackman. That scene remains vivid in my memory as the King and his bride-tobe stood stationary on a double-hulled canoe that was flooded with fresh island flowers, as they flowed through the lagoon to the Wedding Chapel. Perhaps future weddings at Coco Palms Resort will be popular someday following rebuilding efforts.

Seven years after Blue Hawaii, Elvis would return to Coco Palms with his real-life wife Priscilla. Ellen Garcia of Lihue met Presley during his 1968 vacation, along with Priscilla and the Presleys’ newborn Lisa Marie. Garcia tells me she looks forward to the new and improved resort, but says, “It won’t be the same without Elvis,” who sang Kuuipo to her when they met briefly in April 1968 in the grove of some 2,000 coconut trees at Coco Palms."