Starwood's Plan for Homes on a Closed Kauai Golf Course Splits Princeville
In Princeville on Kauai's North Shore in Hawaii, homeowners and Starwood Capital Group are at odds over a proposal for homes and condominiums on the closed Woods Course. The community association holds its annual board election Saturday, with two of five seats open.
Starwood Capital Group and homeowners in Princeville, a resort community on Kauai's North Shore in Hawaii, are at odds over the firm's proposal to place homes and condominiums on the Woods Course. That nine-hole layout at Princeville Makai Golf Club has sat idle since Starwood ceased operations there in 2021. The annual board election for the Princeville at Hanalei Community Association arrives Saturday, Oct. 24, with two of five seats open, and Starwood is seeking more influence on the board, Honolulu Civil Beat reported.
Starwood acquired Princeville's flagship hotel and the Makai Golf Club in 2018 for $225 million, then reopened the hotel in 2023 as 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay. Civil Beat describes Princeville as an 8,000-acre peninsula community with hotels, vacation condominiums, and multimillion-dollar homes. The club's website lists the Makai Course as still open.
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Starwood initially pursued a luxury glamping resort on part of the golf club property, prompting residents Lorraine Mull and Fran White to file suit. After the Kauai County Council adopted an open space ordinance that would have blocked the project, the company shifted to a proposal for homes and condominiums on the Woods Course. In July 2025, Judge Kathleen Watanabe of Hawaii's Fifth Circuit Court ruled for Mull and White. The community association maintains that a 55-year non-development dedication recorded in 1972 restricted the course to golf and ancillary recreational uses through Feb. 28, 2026. Watanabe determined that the dedication must be interpreted alongside Princeville's covenants, conditions, and restrictions, so it renews automatically in five-year terms unless owners holding 75 percent of the votes vote to end it. The court also prohibited housing, overnight accommodations, and unapproved ground-disturbing work. Final judgment entered on Aug. 6, 2025, and Starwood is appealing.
Civil Beat has reported that the remains of hundreds of cattle from a 1917 anthrax outbreak lie buried under the course. Plaintiffs contended that disturbing the soil could release spores, a claim Starwood disputes. Neighbors state that Starwood stopped mowing after the 2025 loss. In May 2026 a judge denied the firm's request to resume ground-disturbing work yet permitted routine landscaping, including mowing. The course remains overgrown. Some residents call it a fire hazard.
A separate conflict involves association governance. On Sept. 24, Shen and Emma Beard Schulz, who own a house on the Woods Course, filed a proposed class action against Starwood, the association, and several current or former board members, alleging deceptive efforts by Starwood to gain control of the board. Starwood holds two votes for each of its 252 hotel rooms in association elections, and critics allege it has used that weight to seat sympathetic directors.
Civil Beat reported that board member Rose Krebs, who won her seat in 2024 with Starwood's backing, now faces a removal petition with more than 500 signatures put forward by Beard Schulz. Starwood then sponsored its own petition to remove the board president and vice president, so three of five directors face removal. No date is set for the recall votes, and general manager Bryan Allen recently resigned. Board member Dale Sands told Civil Beat: "It's kind of like the people versus a corporation." Starwood did not respond to Civil Beat's requests for comment for its Oct. 21 story.
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Civil Beat's 2025 reporting described the plan as dozens of homes and condominiums, but the number Starwood wants to build, and when the appeal will be decided, are not public. Closed courses have turned into land-use contests elsewhere, including the former Badlands course in Las Vegas, where Lennar has begun site work for homes after years of litigation and a city settlement, and Village Golf Club in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, where a homebuilder is exploring homes under a new state law. Mull told Civil Beat: "But is it just a silly neighborhood dispute? No. It's got bigger ramifications than that." At stake is whether a recorded open-space promise from the 1970s can outlast a change in ownership.
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