More than 80 years after Mickey Mouse piloted Steamboat Willie and whistled his way into the hearts of children across the world, he has finally reached the shores of Hawaii.
Walt Disney Co on Friday gave a peek of its sprawling, beachside Hawaiian resort that is under construction and scheduled to open next year.
“Aulani” is Disney’s first major stand-alone resort away from a theme park and could serve as a model for future projects as the company diversifies and expands its vacation offerings.
“This is a very special project for us,” said Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. “It’s unlike anything that Disney has done before; at the same time, it’s very like many of the things we do.”
Aulani will have 359 hotel rooms, 481 time-share units, restaurants, convention center, a 1,394m² spa and massive water play area that includes a volcano tube slide and snorkel lagoon.
It sits on 8.5 hectares on Oahu’s Leeward Coast in the Ko Olina development, known for its white-sand lagoons, scenic golf course and colorful sunsets. Ko Olina is about an hour west of Waikiki, where most of the hotels and tourists are.
Jim Lewis, president of Disney’s time-share component, said Hawaii makes “perfect sense” with its rich culture, traditions, warm greetings, family values, friendships and story-telling.
“Those are also terms synonymous with Disney,” he said. “And by the way, Hawaii also happens to be one of the most popular vacation destinations on the planet, and that’s the business that we’re in.”
Most of the resort is currently a jungle of concrete, steel, wires and pipes with no Mickey and Minnie in sight. Aulani is scheduled to open on Aug. 29 next year, with hotel reservations to begin next month. Time-share sales started three weeks ago.
With the construction phase alone costing more than US$600 million, Aulani represents a huge investment for Disney amid a sharp tourism downturn.
Staggs, who previously served as Disney’s chief financial officer, wouldn’t comment on the final cost.
“Are we nervous about this investment right now given this economy? The answer is we really aren’t,” he said. “We really do have a fundamental belief in this location and Hawaii in general.”
Staggs called the project “a tremendous opportunity,” giving Disney a permanent presence in the islands.
He wouldn’t say what other areas Disney was considering because “right now, our focus is right here and making sure we get this right.”
According to an economic impact study commissioned by Disney, Aulani is expected to generate 4,800 jobs during construction. When completed, 2,400 jobs will be created, with about half working at the resort. More than US$271 million annually in economic activity will be generated.
The largest units at Aulani are three-bedroom “Grand Villas” — 214m² timeshare units that are larger than most Hawaii homes, sleep 12 and have sweeping views of the Pacific.
All the hotel and timeshare units have more of a traditional Hawaiian flair with touches of Disney that generally are subtle — other than the surfer Mickey lamp in each room.
While this may be Disney’s first big push into Hawaii, the company has had a long and growing relationship with Hawaii. One of the most notable is the animated film Lilo & Stitch, the centerpiece of a US$1.7 million marketing deal between Hawaii and Disney.
Other projects have included the 2001 film Pearl Harbor and ABC’s castaway drama Lost, which filmed here for six seasons.
ABC is owned by Disney. In addition, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides began shooting here this summer.
“We couldn’t find a more perfect place in putting a resort like this,” Staggs said.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS