Since Captain Cook first landed at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, everyone has wanted a piece of Hawaii. The Brits, French, Russians and Americans dueled for it during the 19th century. The Missionary ruling elite figured out a way to separate the royals of Hawaii from their land with the Great Mahele in 1850. In the 1970s and 1980s, wealthy Japanese investors bought up most of the prime real estate in the islands and even stooped to cruising tony nabes in limos and offering paper bags full of cash to unsuspecting property owners. All of this involved new ways of cutting up the same pie. Now, a smart developer has figured out that it may be far more lucrative to create land to sell rather than buy it from someone else.

There will actually be three islands for sale -- two at $5.5 million and one at $8 million -- in the midst of the Kauai Lagoons, a truly massive redevelopment of a somewhat dated resort property controlled by a Canadian company and operated by Marriott (the most notable feature of the hotel there is the incongrous menagerie of statues -- fish, elephants, monkeys, whatever -- spouting water in the middle of an enormous pool). The redevelopment will run $1 billion and should contribute loads of jobs, 750 residences (in condo, home lot or timeshare format). It will also likely contributed to Kauai's growing traffic problems, which have become quite heinous according to locals I know. The environmentalists may also go beserk, although the whole thing, which covers many, many acres, was long ago zoned resort/

Honolulu Advertiser: For $5.5M, an island can be yours

Image via Honolulu Advertiser

—Alex, 10/30/06