Fairfield Goes Hawaii With Multimillion-Dollar Timeshare Purchase

Fairfield wouldn't disclose the contract price in a prepared statement. But area hospitality industry brokers tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the price will be more than the estimated development cost of $135 million or $500,000 per bungalow.

The seller was privately held Kona Hawaiian Vacation Ownership LLC. The resort is completing the 72-unit, first-phase which is designed as a Hawaiian village of the 1930s. Outrigger Enterprises Inc., Hawaii's largest hospitality company, will manage the property for an undisclosed fee.

Fairfield and Outrigger have signed a strategic marketing and development alliance which gives Fairfield its first Hawaii-based sales and marketing operation. The companies plan to do joint property acquisition and timeshare development deals in various Hawaii locations.

In the statement, Outrigger president/CEO David Carey calls the Outrigger-Fairfield partnership "a natural marriage of two industry leaders." Fairfield president/CEO Franz S. Hanning says the alliance "provides Fairfield Resorts with a rock-solid foundation from which to aggressively build a strong presence in Hawaii and beyond."

Fairfield calls itself the largest vacation ownership company in the world with 450,000 individual owners at 64 resorts. Fairfield is a subsidiary of New York-based Cendant Corp., a New York Stock Exchange-traded firm.

Area brokers tell GlobeSt.com Fairfield's purchase price for the Hawaiian property may be disclosed in third-quarter financials that Cendant files with the Securities and Exchange Commission.