Disney Acquiring 21 Acres of Hawaii Oceanfront

OAHU, HI-Walt Disney Parks & Resorts is acquiring 21 acres here en route to its first mixed-use family resort outside of its theme park developments. The property is located on the west side of the island, within Ko Olina Resort & Marina.

Disney has been tracking where its timeshare owners go when they trade their weeks at a Disney resort for weeks at other destinations in order to determine where it should add resorts. “Hawaii has been among our most requested Disney Vacation Club getaway locations beyond our theme parks,” says Walt Disney Parks & Resorts chairman Jay Rasulo.

Scheduled to open in 2011, the Disney resort will have more than 800 units. The unit mix will include hotel rooms and villas for Disney Vacation Club, the company’s timeshare business.

Disney is acquiring its land from the Resort Group, master developer of Ko Olina Resort. Designs for the resort are still being finalized. Disney designers have been traveling extensively throughout Hawaii for the past several months for ideas to develop a resort that reflects Hawaii’s culture and heritage.

Plans for the resort hotel are expected to be finalized and revealed in early 2008, but no doubt will include a “Lilo and Stitch” themed area. “Lilo & Stitch” is a 2002 animated Disney film about a Hawaiian girl who tames an alien by teaching the meaning of “ohana,” the Hawaiian tradition of family.