Ala Moana Hotel history

A man named George Herbert bought the beachside land around 1884, with plans for a small resort to capitalize on the even then emerging tourism business.

WAIKIKI’S 1st HOTEL – A LESSON IN MIXING BUSINESS WITH POLITICS Those familiar with Hawaii history will recognize 1893 as also the year of the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani, who Lycurgus supported even afterward.

Wealthy Honolulu landowner, Walter Chamberlain Peacock, incorporated the Moana Hotel Company in 1896 in an effort to establish a luxury hotel in a deserted area of Waikiki.

The Moana Hotel admitted its first guests in 1901, luxury lodging in a place that had beautiful ocean and beaches, but also pure wetlands not too far from its front steps.

Not an immediate success, the 1st owner sold it in 1903 after profits eluded him.

In the center of the Moana Surfrider’s courtyard stands a large Indian banyan tree which was planted in 1904 by Jared Smith, Director of the Department of Agriculture Experiment Station.

In 1905, Peacock sold the Moana Hotel to Alexander Young, a prominent Honolulu businessman who had other hotel interests.

A little down the beach to the east, the Honolulu Seaside Hotel welcomed guests beginning in 1906.

Two floors were added in 1918, along with Italian Renaissance-styled concrete wings on each side of the hotel, creating the H-shape seen today.

THE PINK PALACE MAKES ITS DEBUT In 1925 the Honolulu Seaside Hotel was demolished and construction of the now iconic pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel began.

On February 1, 1927 the grand opening gala was held to celebrate completion and the arrival of a world-class hotel.

That evaporation came in the form of the Ala Wai Canal, finished in 1928, which turned the swampland into solid real estate.

The height of the Waikiki's appeal was in 1934 when Harry Owens and his band became icons of popular Hawaiian music and launched the world-acclaimed radio show, Hawaii Calls.

1951 saw the Edgewater Hotel’s 100 rooms first occupied, the first property of the Kelley family who would go on to expand and create the Outrigger Hotel chain that has been a major player in Hawaii for decades now.

In 1952, the Surfrider Hotel was built east of The Moana.

In 1953, Matson demolished the Moana’s bungalows across the street and, two years later, opened the new Princess Kaiulani Hotel on the site.

The 4th opening of 1955 brought something very, very different to the coastline.

The Waikikian Hotel, the quintessential example of mid-century tiki design, was one example of this dichotomy when it joined the landscape in 1956 on Ala Moana Blvd, next to the Hawaiian Village.

Matson sold all of their Waikiki hotel properties to the Sheraton Company in 1959.

Sheraton sold the Moana and the SurfRider to Japanese industrialist Kenji Osano and his Kyo-Ya Company in 1963, though Sheraton continued to manage them.

The Ilikai, with its 26 floors and 3 wings that made a gigantic ‘Y’ towered over everything in sight when it opened in 1964.

Visitor arrivals hit 1 Million in that very same year, filling the approximately 15,000 hotel rooms that the Visitors Bureau boasted of within Waikiki by 1969.

Azabu sold the Ala Moana for $85 million in 2004 to Crescent Heights, a Miami-based condominium developer. It opened in 1970 as part of Flagship Hotels, the hotel division of American Airlines.

Over 1,900 of those rooms came in the Sheraton Waikiki alone, a marvel of modern design that occupied the neighboring lot to the Royal Hawaiian beginning in 1971.

The hotel was renamed the Ala Moana Americana in 1972, when American bought Americana Hotels.

The Waikiki Biltmore was demolished in 1974, replaced by the Hyatt Regency’s two 40-story towers that added 1,234 more rooms to the local count two years later.

In 1979, the historic tree was one of the first to be listed on Hawaii’s Rare and Exceptional Tree List.

The Ala Moana Americana was sold by co-owners Dillingham Corp. and Pick-Americana Hotels of Dallas to the Japan-based Azabu USA in 1986 for $70 million.

Azabu sold the Ala Moana for $85 million in 2004 to Crescent Heights, a Miami-based condominium developer.

THE MILLENNIM AND BEYOND – WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW The recent decades have seen visitor arrivals, with the exception of the dip following the 2008 economic implosion, continue to grow, but not at the rate of the decades before.

In June 2014, Mantra Group successfully listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX:MTR), and in its first year as a public company was included in the ASX 200 list.